The Federal Government on Wednesday said that social media platform owners have a role to play in the containment of the spread of fake news and disinformation.
The Minister of Information amd Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed announced this during the Wednesday’s PMB administration scoredcard presentation in Abuja.
Mohammed also applauded the plans put forward by meta to tackle the menace, which he described as dangerous as insurgency.
He therefore urged other social media pltforms to emulate meta.
He said, “I want to acknowledge the announcement by Meta, the owners of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, that it will take clearly-outlined steps to protect the integrity of the forthcoming elections. Specifically, 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 election.
“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.
“We also urge other platform owners like Google (owners of YouTube and others), ByteDance (owners of TikTok), Twitter and the Telegram Group Inc. (owners of Telegram messenger) to emulate Meta 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.”
