Sani Michael Omakoji, Leads Social Media Users To React To Emergence Of Fake News In Nigeria.
Nigerian Television Authority NTA, recently raised concern over the rise of “Fake News” in Nigeria.
In response to this alarm, Sani Michael Omakoji, Our World Gist, best columnist led other social media users to react.
Let us read what he has to say along others;
” the rising trend of fake news in our society is as a result of system failure.
In USA for instance, Government interact & even make subvention available for Bloggers; this creates an avenue for moderation & interaction but here we are where government do not know who & who are bloggers.
Similarly, Most of these fake news are being circulated by hungry Bloggers to get traffic.
Perhaps, these people are not invisible but Government fails to bring them on board in the scheme of media.
The irony of it all is that these people that are not invisible are operating in a free world as government do not have their database.
If Nigerian Government must contend this trend, effort must be made to bring these people on board in order to give them sense of belonging and equally create an avenue for moderation as well as define a clear terms, guide lines for operation”
According to DELE JACKSOLOMON, one of the finest Brains on the social media, he says;
“Verifying information in Nigeria and Africa by extension can be difficult because of lack of reliable, accurate and independent data across a lot of sectors, which makes manipulation of information to be easier.
Now is the time to start developing database system in Africa!
In the United States the term ‘fake news’ became frequently used after the 2016 election, which was marked by a Russian misinformation campaign.
But in the African context, fake news has long been a contentious matter, fueled in part by illiteracy and government secrecy even as the continent’s population rapidly acquire mobile handsets and gain internet access.
It’s high time we start checking these accesses especially in Nigeria”
To Law Alpha C, he says ”
I think fake news depends on how one interprets it.
Some people see “fake news” as one telling the breuth, and being critical while, genuine fake news is deliberately spreading inaccurate information, with the intent of achieving a goal known to the individual or organization.
Fake news has become an impediment of the highest proportion, mostly emanating from the opposing camps and available in almost all social media platforms.
Government should rise to the occasion by putting up effective technological checks”
Abdool on the other hand stresses that “Fake news can best be described as a dangerous concoction and lethal weapon deployed by wicked, unpatriotic and unpopular people to destabilize the unity and peaceful co-existence of a particular people like Nigeria, thereby rubbishing the efforts of government”.
In his own contribution, Mohammed Abbabuwa, says, ” Most of the operators of these social media are only concerned with their selfish agenda, hence they are neither aware of the consequences of dishing out fake and sensational news items.
They must be monitored and dealt with according to the laws; the Lawmakers must act now”
In a similar vain, Abdulazeez Mansur opined that, “Fake news is a menace, ready to consumed Nigeria, if the government doesn’t come up with a way and manner to tackle the problem with direct proportion at the rate at which it’s being spreads.
Fake news has recently raised a lot of concerns because of its impact prevalent in contemporary democratic politics.
Fake news spreads like wild-fire and difficult to contain or correct; more so its capacity to distort the eventual truth, makes it a threat in a democratic set-up
The pluralistic nature of “the media” has further complicated the issue.
There are so many sources with doubtful reliability; people are retreating into social media where like-mindedness thrives’ ”
Omotolani in a follow up separated contributions says, ” this has increased the demand for accountability and has made users prone the vulnerability and the danger of misinformation.
Studies show that when false information is introduced to these echo chambers, it is viewed as credible as long as it conforms to the existing narrative.
As long as you have a phone you can tweet whatever you like, say your truth or lies.
This fake news which was alighted by Trump, A group of handful people may come together to promote false information about someone to change public view of the person in question.
Now that our timelines are linked by many algorithms and functions, someone posts will probably come to your timeline.
I’ve blocked plenty bloggers and people just because they are fake news promoters and trolls which is a real problematic thing by the way.
Sincerely, Journalism is losing its integrity.
Many bloggers say senseless things just to arouse people’s emotions, in order to get views and comments on their timeline.
Some cyber terrorists use this medium to create fear, panic and division.
Some Nigerians engage in fake blogging and news because there are paid by people politicians, actors, companies to spread such fake news”.
In summary, though, the views and comments of the twitter users did not represent the views of NTA but overall, it could be deduced that fake news are carried out for selfish reason.
