Fake news, biggest threat to 2019 polls – Lai Mohammed

 

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has said that with the 2019 general elections just a little over 60 days away, fake news and hate speech constitute the biggest threat to elections.

A statement by the minister’s Special Assistant, Segun Adeyemi, quoted Mohammed as stating this yesterday in Kaduna during the 47th meeting of the National Council on Information attended by state Commissioners of Information, Heads of Federal Information Parastatal Agencies and
other stakeholders.

According to him, the trend, if left unchecked, had the capacity to alter the course of election and trigger legitimacy problem for the winner.

He likened the development in the country to that of 2016 US Presidential elections and a recent violence in India where a dozen of people lost their lives.

“A recent study by researchers at the Ohio State University in the United States concluded that Russian interference and the fake news it promoted probably played a significant role in depressing Hilary
Clinton’s support on the day of the country’s 2016 presidential elections.

“Among the fake news circulated ahead of the election were: that Clinton is in poor health due to a serious disease: Pope Francis endorsed candidate Trump, and Clinton approved weapons sales to
Islamic Jihadists.

“Even the winner of that election, President Donald Trump, is still reeling from the impact of the alleged Russian intervention,” he said.

The minister added that: “In India, about a dozen people lost their lives earlier this year because of fake news or hoax messages.

“The victims were lynched after they were falsely accused of child abduction based on fake messages circulated via the social media platform, WhatsApp!

“Right here in Nigeria, you are all aware of a recent report by the BBC, that fake news circulating in the
social media is fuelling the farmers-herders crisis in Nigeria,’’ he said.

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