Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, has stated that the federal government will be moving on with its plan to regulate social media. He revealed during a courtesy call on him by the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers in Abuja.
This comes after he denied the existence of a bill for the regulation of social media in a recent interview. Mohammed said that two major platforms; Facebook and Google have already been contacted. Adding that their aim is to ensure that damages are not done to the country through social media.
Lai Mohmmed’s Speech
“Let me say, straight on, that the intense debate that has been generated by our announcement is a welcome development,” he said.
“The fear of stifling free speech or muzzling the media is totally unfounded. We have no such plan. As we speak, people are on the social media criticizing the administration. We have no problem with that.
“But our concern has to do with the abuse of the social media by those who are bent on spreading fake news and hate speech; and the dangers inherent in that for our national peace and unity.
“No responsible government will sit by and allow fake news and hate speech to dominate its media space because of the capacity of this menace to exploit our national fault lines. To set us against each other and trigger a national conflagration.”
Lai Mohammed also revealed plans of floating a new ‘communication regulation’ which includes recording all calls, and monitoring WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook.
Further, he claimed that fake news are generated on social media, which includes:
President Buhari will be travelling to the United Kingdom for 20 days before proceeding to Saudi Arabia and Austria; Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi was attacked at Rigasa train station in Kaduna and Nigerian Air Force killed 250 Boko Haram insurgents.”
“Another good example is the video of the over 400 young men suspected to be Boko Haram members who were intercepted in Abia State in 2014.
“About two weeks ago, the video came back into circulation, creating panic in the polity. The intention of those behind it is simple: to create tension and panic in the country,” he stated.
