The Federal Government of Nigeria has commended the owner of the Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp known as Meta, Mark Zuckerberg for announcing that the platform will take clearly- outlined steps to protect the integrity of the forthcoming elections in the country.
Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who made the commendation at the 12th Edition of the PMB Administration Scorecard Series 2015-2023 in Abuja on Wednesday, urged other social media platform to follow suit.
He called on the owners like Google (owners of YouTube and others), ByteDance (owners of TikTok), Twitter and the Telegram Group Inc. (owners of Telegrammessenger) to emulate by taking positive steps to prevent the spread of fake news, disinformation and hate speech via their platforms ahead, during and after the 2023 elections.
According to him, “I had earlier spoke about the dangers posed to the 2023 elections by fake news and disinformation.
“I said the increasing resort to fake and disinformation by some political actors and a section of the media constitutes a clear and present danger to the success of the elections, just like violence, insecurity, vote buying, attack on INEC facilities, etc”.
He said specifically that Meta detailed the actions it plans to take to combat disinformation and to make political advertising more transparent. “The company committed to these actions before, during and after the elections”.
Alhaji noted that this is commendable “and it is in line with what we have always said, that the platform owners have a big role to play in checking the spread of fake news, disinformation and hate speech via their platforms.
“Meta has demonstrated a great sense of responsibility and we hope the company will live up to its promise”, Alhaji Lai Mohammed added.