The Nigerian authorities, in the run-up to the elections scheduled for 25 February, have asked the platforms to monitor the content broadcast in order not to fuel tensions within the Nigerian public space.

On 3 February, Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, met with representatives of Google (the internet search engine) and Meta (the parent company of the social network Facebook) in Abuja. The objective was to invite them to monitor the flow of information from their platforms in order to avoid "ill-intentioned people publishing false results and creating tension," according to the Ecofin newspaper.

The latter invited the two groups to collaborate with the security services in order to remove information likely to incite violence from the various actors on the political scene, and from Internet users in general.

It should be emphasised that the monitoring carried out by the Nigerian authorities goes beyond the two platforms mentioned. In general, the state, through the National Broadcasting Commission, has called the media to account for hateful content and misleading or deliberately biased information. 

To this end, Arise News TV and TVC, two local channels, were fined $4,300 each for violating the national broadcasting code in their coverage of election campaigns.

Source : Agence Ecofin

Vanessa Ntoh