Fake news destabilize peace, national unity, FG warns

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has appealed to all Nigerians to join the Federal Government in its efforts to combat the menace of fake news, describing it as a threat to peace and national unity.

Mohammed made the call on Sunday while speaking at the inaugural lecture of the Guild of Professional Bloggers of Nigeria (GPBN) in Lagos, with the theme “Combating Fake News in the Cyberspace”.

He said the collective efforts of all Nigerians were needed in view of the threats fake news posed to peace and unity of the country.

The minister explained that most of the security issues confronting the country, such as herders/farmers were caused by the misrepresentation of facts in both the mainstream and social media.

According to him, the spread of fake news has also promoted ethnic and religious suspicions among Nigerians.

He said that the media especially, has a huge responsibility to check the problem in view of their strength and reach, calling on professionals to always verify their facts before sending out information.

“The media have a responsibility to verify the facts before they share, because once they share, it is always very difficult to retract. You see most of the issues we have about herders/farmers clashes, killings are being fuelled by fake news.

“Of course, I must state the issue of criminality too, but we must stop presenting the issues as if it is Muslims against Christians or Hausas against Ibos. That’s not true. We should stop this narrative of Christians/Muslims or North/South.

”We are dealing with pure criminality, population explosion and climate change and that is the way we should look at it.

“If we continue to post fake news attributing different reasons to the real causes of these issues, a stage will come when Muslims will be suspicious of Christians, Christians become suspicious of Muslim for no reason. That is not good for our unity,” he said.

The minister said the government was partnering different media organisations to check the problem of fake news.

Mohammed said the government was also collaborating with local and international social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp to tackle the problem of fake news.

In her lecture, Prof. Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, Head, Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos said the media was powerful because of their capacity to influence others and bring about change.

She said it was, therefore, expected of stakeholders in the industry to always uphold the ethics and report the facts.

Earlier, Mr Chris Nwandu, President, GPBN, said media platforms could pass integrity test only if they were credible.

He said it was important for bloggers to ensure they publish truthful information always because that was the right thing to do.