2023: “We won’t allow any on-line platform to plunge Nigeria into crisis” – Lai Moh’d 

The Federal Government says it will not allow any social media platform to plunge Nigeria into crisis by spreading fake news and hate speech.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this on Thursday in Abuja at the third edition of the “President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration (PMB) Scorecard 2015-2023” programme.

The PMB Scorecard initiative is organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture to showcase the achievements of the administration in the last seven years. The third edition featured the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who reeled out the achievements recorded by his ministry.

In his opening remarks, Mohammed said the warning to the social media platforms became imperative because of the spike in fake news and disinformation following the change in ownership of a micro-blogging site, Twitter. 

The minister recalled how the Federal Government in June last year suspended the activities of Twitter in the country for allegedly allowing its platform to be used by those who wanted to destabilise the country. The suspension was, however, lifted in January this year after Twitter agreed to regulate its posts, pay an applicable tax and establish a legal entity within the country among other conditions.

“No nation will allow any social media platform to plunge it into anarchy. Definitely not Nigeria. But we have continued to engage positively with the different social media platforms, including Facebook, Google (owners of YouTube) and Twitter. We have no intention of banning any social media platform again”, he said.

On the scorecard series, the minister said the aviation ministry had notched up huge achievements since coming into being.

Related news

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.