FG Unveils Plans To Regulate Social Media

The Federal Government says it was working to inject sanity into the social media space, which the government said has gone totally out of control.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed this at a media briefing, yesterday, in Abuja.
“Gentlemen, since we inaugurated our reform of the broadcast industry, many Nigerians have reached out to us, demanding that we also look into how to sanitise the Social Media space.
“I can assure you that we are also working on how to inject sanity into the Social Media space which, today, is totally out of control.
“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.
“That is why we will continue to evolve ways to tackle fake news and hate speech until we banish both,’’ he said.
The minister solicited the support of the media to banish fake news and hate speech from the media space.
He recalled that the government had in July, 2018, inaugurated a national campaign against fake news and hate speech and he had taken the campaign to the doorsteps of many media houses.
Mohammed said though, the campaign had brought discussions on the menace to the front burner, fake news and hate speech had been going worse.
Mohammed emphasised that the government, in sanitising the social media, would not muzzle the media and stifle free speech.
“This administration has no intention of muzzling the media or stifling free speech, our campaign is against fake news and hates speech.
“However, if you engage in disseminating fake news or hate speech, you need to be worried, because we will not spare you.
“We cannot allow fake news and hate.”