The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that his ministry will this month, February, convene a stakeholders’ meeting as part of efforts to design a framework for the sanitization of the social media.
The Minister, who spoke today, February 3, when he received the Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, and the Ambassador of Innovation of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Finland, Jarmo Sareva, in Abuja, said that the government’s response to the irresponsible use of the social media to promote fake news and hate speech by some unscrupulous individuals is to work with stakeholders to device a mechanism to sanitize the social media, without stifling press freedom or infringing on the rights of individuals.
“Our attempt to sanitize the social media is not at all an attempt to stifle the media and I want to make this very clear.
“As we speak today, we will be meeting later in the month with leaders of the media, civil society, security and other stakeholders on how to sanitize our social media and make it safe for all.
“We, especially in this ministry, have watched with some trepidation the social media front and we have seen how some people try to abuse this platform to cause disaffection, especially by pushing fake news and hate speech.”
The minister’s guests are in Nigeria on an advocacy visit to promote the ideals of the Freedom Online Coalition.
