2023 Elections: Nigeria Commends Facebook, WhatsApp For Commitment In Protecting Process 

The Nigerian government has commended Meta,owners of social media platforms of facebook, Instagram and whatsapp for taken concrete steps to protect the integrity of the country’s forthcoming elections against fake news, disinformation and hate speech.

The country’s information and culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this in Abuja during the President Mohammadu Buharis scorecard series.

The Minister said the detailed outlined and action plans by tech giants to combat the menace of fakenews and disinformation to make poltical advertising more transparent ahead of the 2023 general election was commendable.

“The increasing resort to fake news and disinformation by some political actors and a section of the media constitutes a clear and present danger to the success of theelections, just like violence, insecurity, vote buying, attack on INEC facilities, etc.

“In this regard, I want to acknowledge the announcement by Meta, the owners of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, that it will take clearly-outlined steps to protect the integrity of the forthcoming elections. Specifically, Meta detailed the actions it plans to take to combat disinformation and to make political advertising more transparent.The company committed to these actions before, during and after the elections.

“This is commendable and it is in line with what we have always said, that the platform owners have a big role to play in checking the spread of fake news, disinformation and hate speech via their platforms.Meta has demonstrated a great sense of responsibility and we hope the company will live up to its promise,” the information and culture Minister said.

Mohammed also urged other platform owners like Google (owners of YouTube and others), ByteDance (owners of TikTok), Twitter and the Telegram Group Inc. (owners of Telegram messenger) to emulate Meta by taking positive steps to prevent the spread of fake news, disinformation and hate speech via their platforms ahead, during and after the 2023 elections.

Confidence