Election: Misinformation, disinformation could trigger electoral violence – NOA warns

Ahead of the year’s general election, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has cautioned Nigerians to desist from believing and sharing things seen on social media without verification as it may lead to social unrest among the citizens.

The Director Special Duties and State Operation of NOA, David Akoji stated this on Thursday during a motorised campaign against disinformation and misinformation organised by the Agency.

He said the Agency has been monitoring the social media and the impact of disinformation and misinformation on the buildup of the general election.

“We have been monitoring the social media space and we are seeing the effect and impact that disinformation and misinformation is playing in building perception of the members of the public as we draw close to the general election.

“This disinformation sometimes come in form of deep fake videos that make people to say things that they didn’t really say or by way of misinformation, harvesting videos that come from the past and contextualising them in the present and making people say things that they actually are not saying in the present.

“All of this is feeding into the kind of perception that people are having about various candidates who are on offer in various levels of election. We have also seen that some of these disinformation have the capacity to instigate violence and hate, we have curated some of them”, he said.

Akoji further stated that the response that the NOA has done to this situation is initially to build capacity of diverse members of the public and the Agency has done this in eight classes so far.

“So, as we are on the eve of the election, we are going on the streets on a motorised sticker campaign to further raise awareness of the enlarged public on the fact that they don’t need to accept everything they read on the social media hook, line and sinker, that they should stop, reflect and fact check, ask questions before you share widely.

“Because of the advent of digital media, the speed at which information travels is unimaginable these days. So it becomes extremely important for us to educate the public not to accept what they see till they fact-check so that we can have peaceful general election.

“Events like this is happening across the country in various states and local governments as part of NOA effort in doing sensitization, orientation and advocacy in the buildup the general election so that we have peaceful and credible election”, he added.