TECHDIGEST – Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdulahi, Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has cautioned Journalists against carrying fake news while reporting the forthcoming general election.

He said this on Wednesday while declaring open a digital journalism and fact-checking workshop organised by NITDA in collaboration with NUJ and PRNigeria in Enugu.

Represented by, Mrs Hadiza Umar, Head of Communication and External Affairs, he said the workshop was designed to reawaken journalists on the dangers of fake news, especially before, during and after elections.

“The Theme of this workshop: “Imperatives of Digital news Verifications for 2023 Election,” is apt considering that the 2023 election is fast approaching.

“Fake news can mare the forthcoming election, journalists must always try to verify their news before publishing,” he said.

Speaking, the President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo, said that the workshop was a continuation of a nationwide capacity engagements spanning 20 states.

“This is in view of the moment of electioneering ahead of the elections.

READ ALSO: NUJ Commends NITDA for Digital Journalism Trainings at State Level

“We considered it imperative to engage strategic stakeholders participating in the elections,” he said.

Isiguzo said that journalists must maintain high level of professional ethics in the discharge of their duties, especially in the electioneering period.

He urged journalists to always think about the integrity and peaceful co-existence of the country above other considerations.

“Journalists should be guided by national interest in their reportage.

“The media must understand that we operate in a condition where we need to pull our people out of ignorance, poverty and squalor,” he said.

The NUJ president described fake news as one of the greatest threats to democracy, adding that, the NUJ was currently making efforts to rewrite the ethics for journalists.

“This has become imperative in the light of the advent of the social media,” he said.

Source: IkengaOnline

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TECHDIGEST – The rise of social media has offered numerous advantages, including the ability to make money, networking, and developing professionalism by breaking barriers, creating content, business growth, and other opportunities.

For these reasons, people around the globe have leveraged social media platforms as the most pervasive technological development in the world. Given the ease of citizen engagement, social media platforms have offered increased access to citizen participation.

Unfortunately, social media is also used for the spread of fake news and hate speech.

Fake news refers to the deliberate propagation of false information with the intent of causing harm to a person’s reputation, manipulating people’s perception of real facts, inciting the populace against the government, and most disturbingly, causing mayhem in society.

There are where some netizens (users of the internet) have used social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram to cultivate disreputable means to gain clout by fabricating stories without any verifiable sources or facts. Sometimes these stories are propaganda by users with ill intentions or satirists mischievously creating disruptions to mislead the reader and serve selfish reasons that could be detrimental to society.

The first social media uproar that generated a massive wave of fake news was the #EndSARS protest in October 2020. This witnessed a mass movement of Nigerian youth online and street protests generating about 28 million tweets within a week. The protest erupted following weeks of outrage and anger with videos and pictures showing police brutality, harassment, and extortion in Nigeria.

It started as a peaceful protest but turned violent due to fake news that threw the nation into a state of anarchy.

Although evidence of abuse by SARS personnel surfaced, a variety of misleading information was also spread via social media platforms and other means by some sections of the masses that were angry and obsessed with provoking crisis using such incidents as a trigger.

The voluminous rumors spread in the heat of the #EndSARS protest prompted, award-winning journalist and media strategist, Mohammed Dahiru Lawal, to compile the book titled “101 Fake News on EndSARS” to inform the public on how social media fake news can turn peaceful protests into a national crisis.

For instance, the death of Oke Obi-Enadhuze, said to be killed by a policeman was debunked by his brother who clarified that he (victim) was attacked by thugs. The arrest of protesters in Abuja was debunked by FCT Commissioner of Police (CP)  Bala Chiroma, rumour of Katsina woman protesting against SARS, and most disturbing the alleged killing of a young man in Ughelli by SARS which triggered the EndSARS protests across the nation were all discovered to be fake news by persons and groups that manipulated images for ulterior motives.

The recent condemnable jungle justice meted on Deborah Samuel, the 200-level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto over a blasphemous statement made via her WhatsApp group chat was another violent incident that engulfed the social media.

While blasphemous statements are disrespectful, offensive, insightful, provocative, and frowned upon in every religion, it is also prudent to seek the advice of legal counsel instead of resorting to jungle justice.

However, the increasing incidence of fake news has triggered many reactions and could have triggered another wave of antagonism and mayhem throughout the nation.

Still grappling to calm angry youths in the heart of Sokoto, it became a challenge for some media outlets like PRNigeria to ensure that fake news does not have a say in propagating more religious violence that could affect law and order in state affairs.

According to PRNigeria report on fake news, one of the false reports was shared by the Catholic Broadcast Commission Nigeria on its Facebook page which has over 90,000 followers. The CBCN posted a story that the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah’s house was set ablaze by rioters.

The post read: “Carnage in Sokoto today: Aftermath of violent protest in Sokoto today. Holy Family Catholic Cathedral, Bishop Kukah’s house, and Catholic Pastoral Centre which were built with over N1 billion have been burnt down by hoodlums who are protesting the arrest of those who murdered Miss Deborah Yakubu.”

However, Bishop Kukah debunked the claim, stating that no life was lost in the said riot. According to him, “Contrary to information in circulation, we wish to disclaim that there was an attack of any sort on the residence of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah.”

Meanwhile, there was in circulation another case of a trending video that claimed that northerners were attacking southerners living in those parts of the country.

But PRNigeria’s analysis of the comments and reactions under the post indicates that the claim is not accurate. Some responses to the tweet claimed that it was an old video of a suspected child trafficker who was arrested for abducting a child.

Beyond the fake news, the medium further noted that the attendant reactions are contributing to the hate speech that is further enraging already frayed nerves. Those expressing contrary views are being disparaged, threatened, or attacked.

READ ALSO: NITDA Shares Country’s Roadmap With Stakeholders At Dubai’s Blockchain Gathering

Fake news peddlers creating false parody accounts on social media during a crisis is another warning to Nigerians. These social media accounts are often created by ill-minded people impersonating high-profile personalities to take advantage of the situation to direct traffic to their blogs and incite crises for selfish motives.

Although detecting fake news remains a challenge considering the time factor, labour, logistics, and technological resources, it is necessary to curtail its spread before it causes more carnage to lives and national development.

Thus, the exceptional works by other media platforms to curb the spread of fake news through fact-checking are commendable and should be sustained to foster peace and unity in the country.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) through its subsidiary the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, can help to develop more simplified and user-friendly fact-checking tools to enable people to detect or verify information broadcast over social media and traditional media. Also, it can utilize artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to identify and block fake or parody accounts on social media.

In addition, security agencies need to re-strategize their efforts by partnering with NITDA and indigenous innovators to develop technological solutions to aid intelligence gathering and detection of fake news sources. The scourge of fake news and its attendant consequences should be tackled head-on to ensure the peaceful co-existence of all.

Zeenat o. Sambo
Writes from.Wuye District
Abuja
Zeenatsambo@yahoo.com

The post Curbing Fake News and the Excesses of Social Media appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi has lamented that fake news is travelling faster than factual stories on social media, thereby threatening the journalism profession.

The NITDA Boss made this known on Friday at the just concluded digital journalism workshop held for Journalists in Kano.

The workshop with the theme “Digital Journalism, Media Ethics and Responsible Reporting” was jointly organized by Image Merchants Promotion Limited, publishers of PRNigeria and the Penlight Centre for Investigative Reporting with the supports of NITDA

“Today, courtesy of the internet and social media, fake news travels 15 times faster than the factual stories, which is a great threat to journalism. So training like these would help media professionals to help mitigate this threat.

“We at NITDA, have an ambitious target to achieve 95 percent digital literacy by 2030. We are going to work with journalists and other organisations to see how we can promote digital literacy because it is the greatest resource you can have to thrive and survive in the digital era.

“We are in the era of the knowledge-based economy – digital economy whereby what is underneath us doesn’t matter as what we know – the talent we have and the media has the greatest tool to help our country achieve that.

Speaking on cybersecurity in Nigeria, Kashifu said the government had put in place structures to protect the ecosystem under its strategic roadmap and action plans.

He said: “Cybersecurity is one of the strategic pillar under our strategic roadmap and action plan which is more about social engineering. So, we do three things. We do a lot of awareness so that people need to know the do and don’ts of social media. That’s what will hold them to protect confidential information.

“Secondly, we have a centre called the computer emergency readiness and response centre working round the clock to make sure we proactively protect our digital space. We help MDAs, private organisations and individuals to protect the data and information.”

He further revealed that the agency has people trying to get inside from what’s happening in the deep web and dark web all in an effort to proactively protect the country adding that a team of professionals are also on standby to help people restore their services in case their system is compromised.

Earlier, the IMPR boss, Malam Yushau A. Shuaib, said the workshop was to acquaint journalists and social media influencers with the appropriate digital tools to promote professional standards and enhance their jobs.

Shuaib said over 100 journalists have benefitted from the 3-Days training that was hosted in Abuja, Kwara and Kano States. He added that some of the topics at the workshop included: Digital Journalism for tackling Fake News Menace; Media Ethics and Responsible Reporting, Open Source Intelligence Tools (OSINT), Media Monitoring and Search Engine Optimization, Self-Censorship and National Security, Media management among others.

At the end of the workshop, the NITDA DG, Mr. Kashifu Inuwa was presented with the ‘ICT Personality of the year award’ by the Network of Advocates for Digital Reporting (NADIR), a forum of journalists covering the ICT sector.

Meanwhile, at the end of the workshop, the participants (Journalists) noted that there are expectations on the media, government, regulatory authorities, and the members of the public to achieve ethical and responsible online journalism.

In a communique signed by Isiyaku Ahmed, It was observed that digital technology is critical to the professional practice of journalism, especially in the adoption of digital tools to carry out fact-checking and investigative reportage.

Therefore, the importance of formulating appropriate regulation to guide the practice of online and citizenship journalism, and self-censorship to promote patriotism and national security. They noted that it is imperative for media practitioners to embrace ethical standards and conduct in their reportage to meet global best practices.

While commending the organizers and sponsors of the training programme, especially the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Professor Ali Isa Pantami who has been in the forefront in advocating for the use of digital tools for economic development, they expressed optimism that this initiative will be sustained as part of steps to guarantee responsible online journalism, national security, and growth of the digital economy.

In their determination to ensure the practice of a digitally driven, ethically responsible and development conscious online journalism, the participants pledged to ensure that 20 per cent of their reports will focus on creating awareness on digital literacy and inclusion; demonstrate practical use of digital tools for fact-checking, investigative and developmental journalism as well as promote national unity and cohesion and as well actively participate and attend periodic training and other relevant institutions to regularly upgrade their skills in online journalism, as well as stepping down the knowledge to colleagues.

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TECHDIGEST – Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State has commended PRNigeria over its factual, fair and accurate reportage especially in the aspect of fact- checks and identification of fake news.

The governor said this when Image Marchant Promotions Limited (IMPR) team – Publishers of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential – led by its founder, Mallam Yushau Shuaib, paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Ilorin on Tuesday.

The governor assured that the State will work with PRNigeria in terms of awareness creation on the state government’s activities and capacity building for government officials in the state ministries, departments and agencies.

He also pledged to join hands with the organization to tackle and end the menace of fake news in the country.

Governor Abdulrazak commended the work PRNigeria and Economic Confidential have done over the years in giving reliable and credible information on security matters, adding that he had always thought the platform was a federal government agency.

While commending the Governor, Mallam Yushau Shuaib said that IMPR in conjunction with Penlight Centre is organizing a 3-day workshop on Digital Journalism, Media Ethics and Responsible Reporting for Journalists in the state.

The programme which is supported by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) with the endorsement of Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy would trained journalists and online on latest technological took for journalism in selected states.

Shuaib said that the organization decided to choose Kwara as one of the states for the Workshop for its economic stability, security and ongoing developmental strides under the administration of the governor.

He also commended the governor for his equitable distributions of key appointments and executions in every senatorial districts in the state.

“We are delighted to note that apart from initiating new projects,we are completing abandoned ones, constructing more road networks, reviving state media organisations and your heavy investments in education andhealth sectors,” Shuaib said.

The highpoint of the courtesy visit was the presentation of some publications of the organization to the Governor.

The publications include the latest edition of Economic Confidential Magazine and two books written by two editors of the organization – “Digital Innovation for Economic Prosperity in Nigeria” and “101 Fake News on EndSARS.”

By PRNigeria

The post Your Consistent Exposure of Fake News Impressive, Governor Abdulrazak Tells PRNigeria Delegation appeared first on Tech Digest News.

By Bashir Nasir Sani

TECHDIGEST – It is usually said that a decision made out of haste, with little to no deliberation will often have unforeseen and perhaps even irreversible repercussions. By nature, the hastier the decision, the more adverse its effects. Well, before we go deeper into this conversation, permit me to refresh your minds a bit.

It may be recalled that, on June 5th 2021, the Nigerian government placed an indefinite ban on Twitter from operating in the country, after the social media platform deleted a series of tweets made by the country’s President Muhammadu Buhari. The tweets were aimed at secessionist agitators and the criminal components of society.

While we won’t go into the ethics of the aforementioned ban, one thing we can all agree on was its rash nature, coming just days after the deletion of the president’s tweets. As mentioned above, the hastier a decision, the more adverse its consequences.

One such adverse consequence was the immediate impact on the country’s economy, as Nigeria was reported to have lost over 6 billion Naira just 3 days after the ban. This is quite a huge sum of money to lose in a few days, especially when you consider the fact that the nation is currently the poverty capital of the world, with an unemployment rate of 32.5 per cent as of 2021.

Granted, this amount was speculative and has never been officially stated by the federal government. Of course, it would not be far-fetched if the figures were indeed accurate. Seeing as how almost every government agency has a Twitter account, and how a huge chunk of businesses in the country, from small enterprises to large scale companies also have Twitter accounts.

There are also certain individuals, often referred to as influencers, that manage a sort of ad-hoc online marketing agency. Such agencies are often run exclusively on Twitter.

Thus it’s not an understatement to say that we are all breathing a collective sigh of relief as news has surfaced signifying an end to this stalemate.

According to the minister of information and culture, Lai Muhammad, the government’s committee negotiating with Twitter would soon come to an agreement and make recommendations to the government on the issue. He expressed confidence that everything will be ironed out with Twitter within “a matter of days or weeks”.

Well, whether in a matter of days or weeks, it does look like the end of the ban is indeed in sight. However, what are the economic effects of this move? What positive impact would it have on the country? And how can it be regulated so that such problems do not resurface?

Contrary to popular belief, Nigeria is not the first country to have placed an embargo on Twitter, In fact, Nigeria is currently the sixth nation to have blocked access to the social media platform.

While each one of these other five countries has its motive for doing so, Nigeria’s main reason, apart from the deletion of the president’s tweets, of course, is to curb the unbridled spread of misinformation.

Although this might be a good motive, as mentioned above, suddenly banning with little contemplation had a major impact on the country’s economy.

So, how can the government control fake news while not entirely blocking access to the social media platform?

First and foremost, the Federal Government could control the spread of misinformation simply by educating the masses. Fake news usually feeds on ignorance. As the popular saying goes, “a man who stands for nothing, will fall for everything”. Thus proactive disclosure of information to citizens can enable them to spot false information long before its eventual escalation.

The government could even create Twitter accounts dedicated exclusively to educating Nigerians, especially on sensitive issues that usually attract merchants of misinformation.

Another way to limit false information from spreading is through the employment of fact-checkers. Unbeknownst to most, another popular social media platform Facebook has partnerships with independent fact-checkers whose sole purpose is to debunk all forms of misinformation on the social network.

Not only will the use of fact-checkers provide employment opportunities for Nigerians, especially the youth, but since the government is currently in discourse with Twitter, they can work closely together to improve the efficiency at which misinformation is controlled.

It is worth noting that while the lifting of the Twitter ban in itself might not undo the damage inflicted on the country’s economy, and while the points mentioned above might not completely stop the spread of misinformation, they can both lay the groundwork for future developments.

As we all know, every journey begins with a single step, and these might be very promising first steps.

Bashir Nasir Sani writes  from Abuja.

The post On Twitter Ban And The Spread Of Fake News appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECH DIGEST – It is obvious that getting news about events and incidents has absolutely been made so easy nowadays. Whatever happens, become public knowledge in a matter of minutes. There are a lot of news breakers around apart from the media-the Twitter and Facebook users and Bloggers, etc.

The news breakers are no longer necessarily the conventional media organizations we know such as radio, television or newspapers, though they could at times be, but, social media platforms have to a great extent taken the lead in breaking news, and even giving real-time updates or have some short footages which give the news in multimedia form.

Certainly, this is a good side of social media, that is, breaking the barrier of having to wait till a certain time to get information or news about happenings.

I can say almost 80% of smartphones have social media apps downloaded and installed on them, this then means that majority of smartphone users have social media accounts and access those accounts to socialize and get updates. No doubt we surely are living in a global village.

Getting news and information comes with some consequences; these consequences include consuming fake news and sharing the fake news to others as genuine information knowingly or unknowingly. There are always contaminated pieces of news in circulation online regardless of whether or not there is an event. It is as if makers and peddlers of the fake news do not sleep at all.

It is also as if they mind the business of fake news trading so much that they research to understand the psychology of readers so they can easily sell some false narratives to them without understanding.

This is so because you will sometimes come across reputable or knowledgeable people sharing fake news to people in their network, and if you are a curious mind or fact-checker you then will begin to wonder why they are sharing the piece with you even though they should ordinarily not have shared it without doing some fact-checking, or rather establishing the truth of claims they share.

The simple answer here is that they might have been emotionally conquered to want to break some news without ensuring its authenticity or they have a motive of doing that. Either way, the quick trick to combating fake news is conducting a fact check on pieces of news or information we receive before we share them with others.

Fact-checking involves asking questions such as: what did the lead and body of the story or claim say, is there variance or agreement, who is reporting the piece, the media organization? How credible is that medium, have other sources reported the same piece? What did they say? What genuine sources have the media used to arrive at what they say? Is it an individual reporting or giving the news? What source has he or she relied on to tell the story? Does the story involve some organizations, government, individuals, authorities? Have authorized personalities of these organizations, governments, individuals, authorities been contacted? Did these authorized personalities or parties involve updated their social media accounts (if they have) about the events they are being reported on? There are certainly a number of questions to ask and get answers to be able to establish the truth of a piece of news or information we come across. Fact-checking is indeed worth doing as the danger of fake news is greater than we ordinarily think.

At times thorough reading and simple examination on a piece of story or information can quickly help us determine how true or fake some claim or narrative is. Many fake news pieces will fail to give information as to who said what¸ where, when, before who, etc. When any piece of news fails to answer these basic journalistic storytelling criteria, the suspicion must be raised. And surely sharing the piece should not happen because you may end up sharing fake news.

Everyone can conduct fact-checking and if we all fact-check stories and information we receive, fake news and disinformation will have no place, and we will eventually rid our societies of the menace of fake news.

Already fake news has done great harm to efforts at curbing the spread of COVID19 with several false narratives around the virus, its vaccine and immunization. And because people don’t care to fact-check and find genuine information about not only Coronavirus but other issues, a large chunk of our population has been misled into believing lies as truths. This is a serious danger we must collectively confront and defeat. Fact-checking is a great tool to combating fake news. And it is easy to fact-check because sometimes the sources to contact and verify issues are in our network.

Becoming a fact-checker does not really require hard skills. However, what is most important is reasoning and having the critical mind to be able to raise and seek answers to basic questions around pieces of stories and information we come across particularly online.

You never know how impactful the verification you conduct will be. The danger of allowing fake news to go unchecked is that other people out there will have it as genuine information which is truly dangerous. Some fake news instances mobilize people into violence against each other, others pose health risks or promote political instability and celebrate tribal and religious intolerance.

We, therefore, have a role to play in ridding our societies of the dangers of fake news and disinformation which have nowadays become common. We can do that by fact-checking stories and information we come across especially online. Do a fact-check on any suspicious story you come across, inform and enlighten the public about it.

Abbas Badamasi is a staff of PR Nigeria and Editor @ TechDigest.Ng

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TECH DIGEST – American news-based television channel, Cable Network News (CNN), has retracted its initial report, which claimed that troops of the Nigerian Army killed 38 EndSARS protesters at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos State.

Dubbed “Lekki Massacre” PRNigeria reports that the incident which occurred on October 20, 2020, is fraught of a lot of misinformation, disinformation and fake news to which a lot of reputable local and International Media Organizations were found culpable, including CNN itself and the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC.

After heated controversy and strategic interventions, CNN has officially backtracked its initial report via a tweet on its tweeter handle which was titled, “Clarification.”

In the “Clarification,” CNN said it did not attribute the death toll to Amnesty International and also failed to say in the report that the 38 persons killed were not just at the Lekki tollgate but across the country during the #EndSARS protest.

Recall that PRNigeria had through its fact-checking initiative on November 18th, unveiled a report on 101 cases of fake news on #EndSARS protests it identified, and which were shared and disseminated on various social media platforms.

The Editor-in-Chief of PRNigeria, Mr Yushau Shuaib, at a public presentation of the findings on the #endsars protest noted that the identified 101 fake news used by social media influencers and some media houses aided the escalation of the initially peaceful protest that turned violent.

In terms of the spread of the fake news items across the geo-political zones, the PRNigeria report revealed that about 52 fake news emerged from South-West, while 19 came out from the South East and 30 from the entire North.

On fake news peddlers, the report discovered that social media influencers constitute about 40% of those who spread the fake news, social media users constitute about 31%, while the media (including local and foreign) has 22%, and Institutions contributed a paltry 7%.

The fact-checking tools deployed to confirm the veracity or otherwise of the identified fake news include the social media users that identified 11 fake posts, Fact-Checking System detected 37 fake news items while the media confirmed the falseness of 53 stories.

The timeline of the dissemination of the fake news items indicates that about 31% of the fake stories were posted on social media between October 3 to 19, 2020 that is pre-Lekki Shootings. On the other hand, 69% of the fake news were shared post-Lekki shootings, that is between October 20 and November 5, 2020

The duo of Dahiru Lawal and Abdulsalam Mahmud, the Project Manager of PRNigeria Centre, Kano and Assistant Editor, respectively, anchored a power-point presentation of the report highlight some of the major fake news reports on EndSARS. Dahiru gave instances on some fake posts shared about prominent Nigerians during the nationwide EndSARS protests.

Pending when the full report will be published and presented to the public in January, PRNigeria had written to critical Media Organizations and Institutions caught in the act of fake news paddling to retract their stories for the sake of objectivity, sanity and integrity of the media which will lead Peaceful Coexistence.

Reacting to the retraction, the Fact-Checking Project Coordinator at the PRNigeria Centre for Strategic Communication, Dahiru Lawal applauded CNN for taking the part of honour calling on others found wanting to fall in line.

He noted that there are other media organizations, public officials and Institutions that the 101 fake news report exposed, expressing optimism that before the full publication is out by next month, they will all tow the path of honour.

“Those who made similar mistakes should come and retract because sometimes retraction enhances their credibility. They should understand that retraction is an honour rather than standing on something that is not their fault.” Mohammad quipped.

By PRNigeria

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TECH DIGEST – Fake news has always been an integral part of every society. The emergence of the mobile phone or the smart phone has made it very easy for individuals to browse and access the internet while on-the-go. The collection, processing and distribution of information is easier to access through the speed and power of technology.
As the world continues spinning around information about political and social upheavals every day, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction circulating in the name of news.
With the influx of smart phones, there is a massive volume of news in circulation, seeking to grab the attention of subscribers on traditional media and social media. Digital news portals cover virtually all areas of human endeavour. It is within this setting that the dissemination of fake/false news continues to thrive.
The negative impact of fake news resonates across every part of the world because, when not promptly addressed, it has resulted in deaths, the escalation of conflict, political hostility, social panic, among others. It is no longer about informing, educating, and entertaining through the actual representation of events backed by facts.
Smart phones come with advanced functionality beyond the making of voice calls and sending messages, and now include the capability to relay and transfer audio, video and pictorial materials. Such media posted from one location on the globe is accessed in real time anywhere on planet earth, so long as internet connectivity is available.

Consistently, all manners of news are being churned out to attract, persuade, convince and influence millions of receivers to support a particular position or trend being canvassed by the promoters of the those messages. In the process, fake news has saturated the internet as it competes for the attention of worldwide audiences.

Today, smart phone users are daily bombarded with news, sometimes irrelevant and unsolicited, flashing through with messages that span the important, frivolous, and even mundane information every second. There is no escaping the ubiquitous stream of news rushing into smart phones.

Before I go forward, take a good look at the smart phone in your hands and imagine what it is capable of doing to stem the menace of fake news.

Could you do yourself the favour of taking a moment to verify that juicy, hot latest news before pressing the ‘share’ or ‘forward’ button on your smart phone?

Now, you’re wondering how to verify the authenticity or otherwise of the volume of news constantly pouring into your smart phone?

Please, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not out to judge you but your conscience might be urging you to do the needful by fact-checking that stuff before your finger gets the best of you.

Fact-checking applications are readily available for use in smart phones to verify stories, audios, pictures, videos and documents flying around the internet. Users can install such apps for free to facilitate the verification of contents on the internet.

It is necessary for smart phone users to exercise caution as they surf the internet for contents that align with their interests. Even then, the internet has the capability to search on your behalf without any prompting from you. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology collects and pushes out all the information on the basis of your previous searches.

I strongly believe that Nigerian tech innovators should be encouraged to deploy their creative energies to curb the problem of fake news. It is expected that our young innovators would take up the challenge of developing innovative applications to enable smart phone users fact-check every bit of information that comes their way.

Citizens are looking forward to fact-checking apps that would enable them determine the veracity and sincerity in the comments issued by political, religious, community leaders and other influential stakeholders. With the help of such fact-checking apps, Nigerians would be able to hold political leaders to account for the false promises made during electioneering campaigns.

This way, transparency and accountability would be greatly enhanced as religious and political leaders may just learn to match their promises with action by providing accurate and credible information at all times. Responsible and responsive stewardship would be visible at all levels of public service to promote good governance.

This could just be the chance for the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) commissioned by NITDA to motivate young innovators to develop indigenous fact-checking apps for the population of smart phone users. With that Nigeria can start reining in on fake news, which is fast becoming one of the greatest sources of concern in the country these days.

Inyene Ibanga is Managing Editor TechDigest and writes from Wuye District, Abuja.

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TECH DIGEST – As countries in Africa prepare to hold elections soon, Social Media Platform, Facebook, has revealed some of the measures it is taking to ensure fairness and integrity of the elections as part of its contributions to the region.

According to the platform’s Public Policy Manager, Africa Elections, Akua Gyekye, the measures provide an overview of its ongoing work in reducing misinformation and removing voter suppression. He said the measures are preventing election interference, supporting civic engagement and increasing transparency in political advertising.

Combating misinformation and false news

Gyekye said: “We are working hard to fight the spread of misinformation on our services because we know that people want to see accurate information on Facebook and Instagram.

“Our updated policies allow us to remove misinformation which could lead to imminent violence or physical harm, and also remove misinformation which could prevent people from voting, such as false news related to the dates, location, time, and voting methods.

“Over the past year, we have expanded our work with independent fact-checking organisations across Africa to review and rate the accuracy of content shared on Facebook and Instagram,” Gyekye explained.

“The program now covers 18 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa and also supports local languages such as Swahili, Wolof, Igbo, Yoruba, Zulu, and Setswana,” Gyekye explained.

Boosting digital literacy

Facebook said it wants to make sure people can spot false news and know-how to alert it about it.

Gyekye said, “That’s why we continue to run campaigns focused on providing educational tips on how to spot false news like ‘three questions to help stamp out false news’.

“These campaigns are supported in local languages and run across both local radio and on Facebook. We are also continuing to run education ads focused on hate speech, how it’s defined and actions users can take,” it said.

Making political ads more transparent

Facebook said: “We believe political discussion and debate should be transparent to every voter, which is why over the past few years, we have introduced tools that provide more information about political ads on Facebook and Instagram.

“Since launching our political ads transparency tool in 2019, we have expanded this to cover a number of countries across Sub-Saharan Africa.

“We encourage anybody who wants to run ads about elections or politics to go through a verification process to prove who they are and that they live in the country they are targeting, and in a growing number of countries across Sub-Saharan Africa we have made this process mandatory.”

Promoting civic engagement

Gyekye also explained that Facebook is helping to build informed and civically engaged communities around elections.

He said: “For example, in countries like Ghana, Ivory Coast and Guinea we’ve engaged in conversations with civic stakeholders such as the Electoral Commissions and civil society organisations to focus on how Facebook can be a positive tool for civic engagement and the steps they can take to stay safe while using our platforms.

“We have also conducted virtual training on ads enforcement and civic engagement with political parties in these same countries. We continue to roll out a number of products and features across Facebook and Instagram, including Election Day reminders at the top of Facebook’s News Feed to encourage people to vote, and Security Megaphones to remind page admin of political groups to further secure their accounts using Two-Factor Authentication,” he said.

Keeping people safe

Gyekye said: “Since 2016, we have tripled the size of the teams working on safety and security to more than 35,000 people. We have hired more systems engineers, security experts, and content reviewers, including native language speakers in Swahili, Amharic, Zulu, Somali, Oromo and Hausa, to name a few examples.

“We have also pioneered the use of artificial intelligence to find and remove harmful content more quickly. Between April and June of this year, we removed over 15 million pieces of graphic and violent content globally, detecting over 99 percent proactively before anyone had to report it,” he said.

Partnerships with NGOs

Facebook said it has continued to work on-the-ground with NGOs and civil society groups across many African countries.

The post Elections in Africa: Facebook Reveals Strategies To Combat Fake News appeared first on Tech Digest News.

NEWS DIGEST – WhatsApp has announced the launch of a new feature globally that will highlight when a message has been forwarded and not composed by the sender.

The messaging application made the move public on Tuesday through its official blog following calls from various parts of the world, including India, to tackle the spread of fake news.

In the statement, the platform, owned by Facebook, said, “Starting today, WhatsApp will indicate which messages you receive, have been forwarded to you.

“This extra context will help make one-on-one and group chats easier to follow,” WhatsApp said in a blog.

“It also helps you determine if your friend or relative wrote the message they sent or if it originally came from someone else.

“To see this new forwarded label, you need to have the latest supported version of WhatsApp on your phone,” WhatsApp added.

Recently, while replying a notice by the Indian government to take immediate measures to prevent misuse of its platform, WhatsApp had said that it was testing a new label that highlights when a message has been forwarded.

“This could serve as an important signal for recipients to think twice before forwarding messages.

“Because it lets a user know if content they received was written by the person they know or a potential rumour from someone else,” it had said.

In its blog, the instant messaging application added, “WhatsApp cares deeply about your safety.

“We encourage you to think before sharing messages that were forwarded. As a reminder, you can report spam or block a contact in one tap and can always reach out to WhatsApp directly for help.”

The company had last month also announced “unrestricted monetary awards” for research on spread of misinformation on its platform to address the problem.

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The post WhatsApp introduces new feature to curb fake news appeared first on Tech Digest News.