Minister Of Information And Culture, Lai Mohammed Says No Going Back On Social Media Regulation

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has stated that there is no going back in plans to regulate social media in the country.

This is coming few weeks after the Minister denied the existence of a bill for the regulation of social media during an interview on an international news platform.

Speaking with newsmen in Abuja on February 20, Lai Mohammed said the federal government have already contacted two major platforms; Facebook and Google.

Lai Mohammed noted that the aim of the bill is to ensure that damages are not done to the country through the social media.

He said;

We are pushing ahead with our plan to sanitize the social media, working with stakeholders. By March 2, 2020, we will inaugurate a stakeholders committee that will deliberate and recommend the way forward.

We are also planning a major international conference that will bring together the tech companies, media practitioners, policy makers and others as part of efforts to tackle this growing canker-worm

Speaking on his meeting with social media giants, Mohammed stated that;

Last week, I met with representatives of Google and Facebook for the same purpose. The situation is dire, and no nation that values its peace, security and stability will allow an irresponsible use of the social media.

There has been a spike in the dissemination of fake news and the use of disinformation in recent times. This is not accidental: Fake news, disinformation and hate speech have become the weapons of choice to create tension in the polity and destabilise the country. And those behind them, the naysayers, are not about to relent.

According to him, those behind campaign of fake news and disinformation have also deployed new tactics, top of which is the recycling old news items and videos.