According to Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed, the country has requested Google and Meta to limit the circulation of false information ahead of a presidential election later this month.
Mohammed revealed that he had a meeting with executives from Meta and Google and urged that they make posts from official channels available on their platforms and indicate unverified election results coming from unverified sources. Mohammed stated this request was made after the meeting.
Mohammed further requested that the two companies collaborate with law enforcement in removing potentially violent online content.
The spread of false information on social media before, during, and after the elections will be greatly curbed if these efforts are carried out, according to Mohammed.
Dawn Dimowo, a Google representative present at the meeting, said the company had engaged and expanded the reach of fact-checking platforms like Dubawa to identify and report fake news, in addition to training roughly 6,000 journalists.
Adaora Ikenze, the head of Meta’s Anglophone West Africa division, revealed that the company has established an election protection operational center with 60 to 80 staff members working around the clock to ensure that its platforms are not misused to sabotage the election.
Mohammed’s request follows one he made to Google last year to prevent secessionist and Islamist extremist organizations in the nation from using YouTube channels and live streams.
Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, has been looking into ways to control social media use.
On February 25, Nigerians will vote to choose a new president.
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