The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has voiced out concern over the dissemination of fake news and disinformation in the country.
The minister said this Thursday night in Abuja when he paid a visit to the “The Labour Room’’, Nigeria’s first Reality TV show geared toward national development.
The reality show being hosted in Abuja assembles 37 youths, christened as “Governors”, selected from every state of the federation and the FCT at a location called “Labour Room Mansion’’.
The minister, who accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of sponsoring fake news on social media, said the party wants to come back to power because they wanted to cover up their tracks.
“They still have money buried in farms that we have not gotten to, but by the grace of God with the whistle blowing policy, we will get to where they have buried all our money.’’
Mohammed said, although fake news and disinformation were a global phenomenon, the government was worried and concerned about it.
He said most Nigerians accessed their information from social media “and unfortunately, there is no rule of engagement on social media’’.
“Before, we all know who a journalist is but today, anyone with a phone is a journalist.
“Anyone today can go online, publish photographs and tell lies about the country,’’ he said.
The minister said that the government was constraint because it did not want to make any draconian law that would restrict people from the use of social media.
He said the social media had its good and bad part, adding that it was unfortunate that some unscrupulous persons were using the medium for negative ends.
The minister also took time to brief the participants on the achievements recorded by the administration, in spite challenges.
He said through discipline, determination and transparency, the government recorded landmark achievements that were putting the country on the path of sustainable growth.
He said the administration had delivered and still delivering in the broad areas that form the plank of its policies: Security, fight against corruption and the economy.
