The Federal government has said that despite criticism of its plan to regulate the social media, it would still go ahead with the regulation to curb the level of hate speeches and fake news that is being characterised on the social media.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed while speaking on Thursday at a meeting with Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, acknowledged that the move by the government had been greeted with criticisms.
He, however, solicited the support of the media for National Campaign against for Fake News and Hate Speech which was launched last year.
He said the debate that has been generated by the announcement is a welcome development.
ALSO READ: Woman tells court how fake pastor, 2 others allegedly duped her of N28.9m
“This is because the announcement has pushed the issue of social media to the front burner. We can only benefit from such debate”.
The Minister, therefore, said “we have been monitoring the debate. Some analysts and commentators have supported our plan, while others have opposed it.
“An interesting part of the debate has been that even those who oppose the regulation have acknowledged the dangers inherent in the irresponsible use of social media, especially by anarchists and non-patriots. We thank everyone who has spoken out, and we hope the debate will continue.
He dismissed the allegation that the government was trying to stifle free speech and muzzle the media through the regulation of social media.
“Again, the fear of stifling free speech or muzzling the media is totally unfounded. We have no such plan. As we speak, people are on social media criticising the Administration.
“We have no problem with that because it is part of democracy. People are using traditional media to criticise the Administration. Why not? This is a democracy and there should be a plurality of opinions.
“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. We have no hidden agenda”.
“Finally, and for the avoidance of doubt, while we welcome robust debate on this issue, the criticisms in certain quarters will not stop us from going ahead with our efforts to sanitise the social media space.
“It is the right thing to do in the circumstances. And we are not alone in doing this. Countries around the world are as concerned as we are, and they are doing something about social media. The list is long: Germany, UK, Singapore, China, South Korea, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia”
“As I have said many times, 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”, the Minister said.
and then