The Centre said it was worried by the increasing incidence of disinformation and misinformation on social media platforms, maintaining that "social media are not anti-social media".
The Centre for Social Media Research (CSMR) has enjoined Nigerians to be vigilant and wary of fake news as the country heads to the polls on Saturday to select a new president.
The Centre said it was worried by the increasing incidence of disinformation and misinformation on social media platforms, maintaining that "social media are not anti-social media".
It said that fake news has distorted political communication in the run-up to the election as supporters of major candidates in the presidential election compete to outdo one another.
In a statement issued by CSMR on Tuesday and signed by Associate Professor Tunde Akanni and Dr Akin Olaniyan, the Centre regretted that supporters of the major presidential candidates in an effort to outdo their opponents were making endorsements that purport to show prominent Nigerians as supporting and recommending their presidential candidate.
The Centre warned, “Nigerians need to be careful about purported endorsement by paid influencers who take their unsuspecting followers for a ride by publicly canvassing support for candidates while disguising their actions as borne out of any political ideology or a genuine belief in the Nigerian project.”
CSMR cited the recent case of Professor Wole Soyinka who was forced to come out to deny widely reported claims on social media that he was backing the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu.
According to the statement, it was worried that rather than be seen to be supportive of resource abundance providing a public sphere connecting Nigerians and enabling rigorous debate of national issues, social media is becoming a communicative space severely affecting the quality of information that ought to help Nigerians make informed choices at the polls.
“Social media are already becoming anti-social here. It feared that if left unchecked, the growing incidence of so-called fake news portends grave dangers to Nigeria’s democratic process because it undermines trust in news; it further polarizes a country that has so far struggled to knit its people together; and because it thrives on sensationalism, increases the potential for political violence that targets perceived opponents,” it said.
The Centre also frowned on the willingness of politicians and their supporters to pay shadowy foreign firms like Cambridge Analytica to attempt to influence elections in Nigeria by targeting its people with well-decorated forms of disinformation and misinformation.
“We make bold to enjoin Nigerian authorities to alert Facebook, Google and Twitter to relevant issues based on our experience relating with some of these concerns having taken time to seek the understanding of their operations and their concerns,” the statement added.
This, according to CSMR, is because their business models reward web traffic governed by targeted advertising and algorithms, which often fail to spot and weed out fake news that are produced through fake social media accounts or political bots.
CSMR, therefore, advised Nigerians to be careful about sharing information through their assorted social media accounts especially WhatsApp, on account of its domineering ubiquity, unless they have been able to confirm that it is true.
It added that when Nigerians are in doubt, they should ask themselves the following questions before sharing: Am I sure of the source? Is it the entire truth? Is it relevant? Is it necessary? Will it spread fear? Will it incite people to violence? Will it put some groups or sections at risk of attack? What do I gain by sharing or what do I lose by not sharing?