By Williams Anuku The Federal Executive Council meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, deliberated on so...
By Williams Anuku
The Federal Executive Council meeting, presided over by
President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, deliberated on some of the social
vices promoted by Facebook without its knowledge.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who
confirmed that the issue came up for deliberations at the FEC meeting, also
accused Nigerians living outside the shores of the country of keying into the
mass platform to incite violence back home without necessarily being aware of
the implications.
Mohammed said the management of Facebook saw reasons with
the Nigerian government and plans to do something about it in the future.
Recall that the Federal Government recently unbanned
Twitter, following its readiness to comply with regulatory measures outlined by
the government.
Despite having to suffer some economic losses in billions
and local/ international criticisms, the Nigerian government banned the
operations of Twitter for several months before rescinding its decision.
Asked whether the issue came up for discussions at FEC,
Mohammed said, “Oh, yes, we did. I had a very fruitful meeting with Facebook
yesterday. At that meeting, we expressed our displeasure that Facebook was
becoming a power of choice for those who stay outside Nigeria, in particular,
to incite violence, killings, burning of government properties, killing of
soldiers and policemen.
“And that they do more than what they are doing now in
looking at the contents, which are unwholesome, which are being used on their
platforms, incidentally, the BBC did a documentary on this particular issue and
found out that some of them who call themselves social media warriors in
England, in France and other places, have in recent times, be using the
Facebook platform to incite violence in Nigeria. And we’ve all seen the real
life impact of those war mongering, the young couple who are going to marry,
soldiers who were gruesomely murdered.
“Over this weekend in Anambra State, policemen were killed,
military barracks were attacked. And we did warn Facebook to please do more
than what they are doing now. And I must say that their response was quite
encouraging. They said you’re going to do much more.”
While briefing State House Correspondents, Mohammed allayed
fears of banning Facebook if it continues to incite violence.
He said, “I think I gave you an answer. We had a very robust
discussion with Facebook. Facebook saw our point and they said they’re going to
do much more than what they are doing. So if they do that, why would we ban
them?, we don’t ban for banning sake. We ban or we only suspend operations if
for any reason, lives are threatened and they do not listen. But this is an
engagement”.
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