#EndSARS: We’ll regulate, not shut down social media – Lai Mohammed

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said social media in Nigeria would be regulated and not shut down as speculated in some quarters.

The minister said this on Thursday, November 19, during a press conference on the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests.

According to him, the government would only work with stakeholders to regulate the social media activities in the country.

“Keen watchers of the developments cannot fail to notice the role played by the social media in the EndSARS protest. As a veritable tool for mass mobilization, the organizers of the protest of course leveraged heavily on social media for that purpose.

But on the other hand, the same social media was used to spread fake news and disinformation that catalyzed the violence that was witnessed across the country.

This development has reinforced the campaign against fake news and disinformation, which we launched in 2018. As a matter of fact, as far back as 2017, when we dedicated that year’s National Council on Information to the issue of fake news and disinformation, we had been expressing concerns on the dangers posed by irresponsible use of the new media platform.

The concerns culminated in the launch of the national campaign which I referred to earlier.

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The social media was used to guide arsonists and looters to certain properties, both public and private.

As we have said many times, no responsible government will stand by and allow such abuse of social media to continue.

The fake news/disinformation purveyors have latched on to our concerns to allege that the Federal Government is planning to shut down social media. No, we have no plans to shut down the social media. What we have always advocated, and what we will do, is to regulate the social media,” he said.