*Lai Mohammed, Minister for Information and Culture meets with the representatives of Meta and Google in a move to protect the integrity of the forthcoming General Elections in Nigeria

Isola Moses| 绿帽献妻

The Federal Government has sealed agreements with some of the global technology giants, namely: Meta and Google, on the need to protect the integrity of the forthcoming General Elections in Nigeria.

The Nigerian Government reached the agreements with the Big Techs at a meeting between Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Honourable Minister for Information and Culture, and representatives of Meta and Google Friday, Friday, February 3, 2023, in Abuja, FCT.

While Meta is the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Google owns YouTube, G-mail and Google Search in cyberspace.

At the meeting, convened at the instance of the Mohammed, the technology giants agreed to comply with four demands by the Federal Government, agency report said.

The tech giants agreed to work with the government in flagging and bringing down posts constituting fake news and disinformation in their platforms.

They also agreed to work with the country’s security agencies to yank off posts capable of inciting violence before, during and after this year’s聽 elections.

Part of the agreement also is that election results not originating from official sources, should be flagged as unverified by the tech giants platforms, report said.

The Big Techs as well agreed to make posts from official channels, like the Ministry of Information and Culture, INEC, National Orientation Agency, etc., prominent on their platforms during the polls.

Earlier, Mohammed was said to have underscored the importance of the elections to the country and the assurance by President Muhammadu Buhari to Nigerians and the international community on free, fair, credible and peaceful polls.

According to the Minister, the use of social media is a critical factor in national election of countries, including Nigeria with a predominantly youthful population.

Mohammed, however, expressed concern that 22 days to the elections, there has been a noticeable increase in the use of fake news and disinformation across the social media platforms.

He stressed the purveyors of fake news and disinformation were those bent on hindering the success of the elections and throwing the country into crisis.

鈥淭here has been a gross abuse of social media platforms to purvey fake news and disinformation ahead of the elections.

鈥淭hese unscrupulous people are resorting to the use of parody accounts, cloning of reputable media platforms and the use of deep fakes to carry out their nefarious activities,” stated Mohammed.

He further said: 鈥淔or example, candidates鈥� campaign speeches are doctored to portray them in bad light, video clips and pictures of campaign rallies are tampered with to make them look poorly attended.

鈥淔ake or unscientific opinion polls are concocted, while threats of violence in certain parts of the country are exaggerated.”

He noted: 鈥淎ll of these are then circulated via social media to a wide audience, with the aim of making their target candidates look bad, influencing public perception or even suppressing votes in certain areas.

鈥淲e have therefore invited you, platform owners, here so we can work together to reduce these negative tendencies before, during and after the forthcoming elections.鈥�

Speaking at the forum, Adaora Ikenze, Head of Public Policy (Anglophone West Africa) at Meta, thanked the Minister for initiating the meeting, and assured that the government’s requests would be honoured.

Ikenze explained that Meta had set up Election Protection Operating Centre, which works 24 hours with relevant stakeholders to ensure the integrity of the polls in Nigeria.

She also disclosed the company had partnered with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), to provide information on the polls, and as well engage facts checkers to flag unwholesome and fake contents.

In her remarks at the meeting, Dawn Dimowo, Policy and Government Affairs Lead at Google, also assured the Federal Government, that the tech giant would follow up with the government’s team, so that they could flag any content escalated to be problematic.

Dimowo noted Google has a process to direct users of the company’s platforms to authentic elections result channel.

She, therefore, assured that any unverified sources that post results of the elections would be brought down, report added.

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