Nigeria information managers focus on curbing hate speech and fake news

Information managers at the National Council on Information resolved to tackle hate speech and fake news head-on.   The tendency for the harm caused by the twin evil of hate speech and fake news tends to be underplayed until those whose duty it is to manage information at various levels of government and agencies recount […]

Information managers at the National Council on Information resolved to tackle hate speech and fake news head-on.

 

The tendency for the harm caused by the twin evil of hate speech and fake news tends to be underplayed until those whose duty it is to manage information at various levels of government and agencies recount their experiences.

That was exactly what happened when information managers from the 36 states of the federation and other government agencies that deal on information gathered in Kaduna between December 11 to 13 to deliberate on issues affecting the dissemination and management of information in Nigeria.

The event was the 47th meeting of officials of the National Council on Information with the theme: “Tackling Fake News and Hate Speech to Enhance Peace and National Unity.”

Host governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, represented by his special adviser on media, Muyiwa Adekeye, welcomed participants and urged them to look deeply into the issues due to the challenges they pose to the country. The governor set the ball rolling by emphasizing on the need for media managers to be proactive.

There was a noticeable agreement among the participants that fake news and hate speeches are becoming more rampant and could have negative implications on the unity and corporate existence of Nigeria.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed stressed the danger that fake news and hate speech are posing to the polity saying it has gone beyond certain confines causing challenges to peace, stability and unity of the country and the global community.

The minister said the danger the twin evil are capable of causing calls for action and that all hands must be on deck to curtail their spread. He said the issues transcends political party lines, religion, ethnicity, and even nationality and left unchecked, would constitute the biggest threat to the 2019 elections.

Many of the participants agreed with the minister that hate speech and fake news cannot be allowed to continue due to the dangers they pose to the country and its well-being.

Plateau State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Yakubu Dati in his submission, said it was imperative for states to support the effort of the federal government to combat fake news and hate speech.

He said this was because Nigeria, the media and the electoral processes are going through one of the most challenging periods in its history.

Dati defined fake news as “information deliberately fabricated and published with the intention to deceive and mislead others into believing falsehoods or doubting verifiable facts” and hate speech as “inflammatory language often insulting and derisive that targets and individual or group, that may include a call to violence, the commissioner observed that in a polarized society, hate speech and fake news can deepen division and distrust and violence.”

The Kwara State Commissioner for Information, Ishak Mohammed Sabi, who defined hate speech as “formal talk of dislike for somebody given to an audience or any speech that attacks persons or group on the basis of attributes such as gender, ethnic origin, religion, race, disability or sexual orientation, said though both may have similar attributes but that they are not the same.

“Hate speech is borne out of malice while fake news is as a result of manipulation,” he stated.

To indicate the magnitude of damage hate speech and fakes news can cause, the minister said a recent study by researchers at the Ohio State University in the United States concluded that Russian interference and the fake news it promoted probably played a significant role in depressing Hilary Clinton’s support on the day of the country’s 2016 presidential elections.

He added that in India, about a dozen people lost their lives earlier this year because of fake news or hoax messages.

“The victims were lynched after they were falsely accused of child abduction based on fake messages circulated via the social media platform, WhatsApp!

The minister said since the government realized the damage fake news and hate speech are capable of it organized an extraordinary session of the National Council on Information on fake news and hate speech in Jos, Plateau State in 2017.

He said, “In the wake of the meeting, we used every available platform to highlight the dangers of fake news and hate speech. We then followed up with a National Campaign against Fake News and Hate Speech which was launched on July 11, 2018.

Having agreed that they have a problem on their hands, the information managers gave their suggestions on how to curb the menace.

The minister said though some have called for stiffer legislation while others are for more punitive actions, appealing to the sense of responsibility of all Nigerians seems a better approach and called on the media to take the lead in the campaign.

“For the media, any story that fails the basic test of 5Ws and How cannot be real: Who was involved? What happened? Where did it happen? When did it take place? Why did it happen? and How did it happen? For

ordinary Nigerians, the test is even simpler: Before sharing that information on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or WhatsApp, do two things: 1) Ask how credible the source is, and 2) Don’t share any information you can’t vouch for,” he said.

The other participants noted that hate speech and fake news are thriving not because of lack of legislation but that the judicial process for apprehending suspects has been very slow.

The Kwara State information commissioner suggested the need to create special courts to quicken the dispensation of justice on those accused of either engaging in hate speeches or fabricating fake news.

He said this was because the courts use outdated and manual methods and people create fake user names on social media to pass across hate speeches and fake news that a prosecutor might find it difficult to link the culprit with alleged crime.

The Cross Rivers State commissioner on the other hand suggested extensive education of the masses to moderate the spread and effect of fake news.

He said, “This is perhaps the most potent and important intervention because legal enforcement and content moderation can only treat the symptoms.”

The Plateau information commissioner on his part suggested the intensification of the campaign for media practitioners to be trained on issues of fake news and hate speech and insisted that the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigeria Guild of Editors and others sanction their members when they break the rule.

The Yobe State government said it was working on that and has in organized a two-day workshop for journalists in both the state and local governments on how to handle social media reports and counter fake news.

Yobe State Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Mala Musti, said the state has also set up a State Social Mobilization Technical Committee (SOMTEC) charged with the responsibility of mobilizing people to appreciate what the government and other non-government organisations are doing to improve the condition of the citizenry in the state.

Going by the resolve at the council, a new era for fighting the problems of fake news and hate speech may have begun.