In a bid to control the level at which Nigerian internet users use hate speeches, the government through the Nigeria Military had set up a mechanism that censors hate speeches online.
In a telecast on Channels television on Wednesday, Director of Defence Information, Major-General John Enenche, said the move became necessary in the light of troubling activities and misinformation capable of jeopardizing the unity of the country.
His comments which came barely 48 hours after president Muhammadu Buhari released a speech on the disturbing talks and commentaries Nigerians made on social media in his absence.
Enenche said the problem complained about, the social media, is a global challenge that has always been addressed.
In his word he said.
“It is a double-edged sword and we are also having a bit of it,” he said when he appeared on Channels Television’s News At 10, hours after President Buhari met with service chiefs and ordered them to strengthen their operations.
“Imagine when the President came back and addressed the nation, not up to 30 minutes later, a fake speech of the Commander-In-Chief was being circulated in order to do what? To derail the people. If you are not very sharp and if you didn’t listen to the speech or you don’t have a copy of it like I had it almost immediately, you wouldn’t know. So, looking at it from that perspective, it is a challenge everywhere.”
Having the feelings that the social media can seriously be misused, he spoke about the strategic media centers the Nigerian military has structured in place to check nefarious comments by users.
“What are we doing? In the military, we are now taking on it more seriously than ever. We have our strategic media centres that monitor the social media to be able to sieve out and react to all the ones that will be anti-government, be anti-military, (and) be anti-security,” the military chief furthered.
“We tackle them appropriately with appropriate responses. Ahead of that, we are also proactive. We have measures in place, scientific measures to be able to sieve this information and also to get the public and let them know that some of this information they are getting is not genuine are not true and their objective is an anti-corporate existence of this country.”
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