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Minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed has opined that the spread of fake news may cause World War III, People Gazette reports.
Speaking on Monday, October 25, when he appeared before the House of Representatives committee on information, national orientation, ethics, and values to defend his ministry’s 2022 budget, he called for social media to be regulated in Nigeria, insisting that the platforms spread fake information.
“With fake news today and misinformation, I have always said here that the next world war will be caused by fake news,” he said.
While recounting the means of disseminating information decades ago, the minister explained that Nigerians had deserted the old means by embracing the “unseen enemy,” social media.
“Information is not what it used to be, 20 to 30 years ago if the state or federal government had a television or radio and probably a newspaper, that was what we needed,” he noted.
According to Mr. Mohammed, the Buhari regime will always be criticized if it refuses to take adequate measures to regulate social media content.
“The people today, they don’t read newspapers, they don’t watch television, it’s social media. And it is most expensive; the most unseen enemy, they are there every moment, and until we go to the same battlefield with them, there is nothing the government will do that will seem right,” he said.
“You can see even the U.S. that use to pride itself on the freedom of the press is now questioning the role of the social media,” he added.”
Recall that while defending the 2021 budget proposal of his ministry in October 2020, Mr. Mohammed had reasoned that Nigeria should also go the way of China to tackle misinformation.
“If you go to China, you cannot get Google, Facebook, or Instagram, but you can only use your email because they have made sure that it is regulated,” he had said.
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