….Summit to tackle fake news, libel, others
….vow to sanitize social media space
The former Military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (Retd), foremost Nigeria’s playwright and Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Tajudeen Abbas, among other dignitaries, are set to grace the maiden National Bloggers and Vloggers Summit, in Abuja.
The three-day Summit with the theme ‘Nigeria’s Consciousness Towards Good Reportage, Constructive Criticism and National Development: The Role of Bloggers’ is slated for Wednesday 11th – Friday 13th of October, 2023,
is to address the menace of fake news, libel, blackmail, and other issues.
In a statement signed by the Chairman, Local Organising Committee of the Summit, Dele Anifowoshe, explained essence of the Summit, which according to Anifowoshe, many bloggers have refused to draw the line between correct information, misinformation and disinformation.
All bloggers, Vloggers and Content Creators across the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory are going to be in attendance during the three-day Summit.
He said: “Now, the fundamental question here is how many Bloggers, Vloggers and Content Creators conduct research and investigation before feeding their websites?
“Are Bloggers, Vloggers and Content Creators more interested in growing their fan base rather than the dissemination of credible information?
“The bloggers have been attributed to as being agents of fake news, this assertion may not be entirely true but the effects of fake news, hate speech and campaign of calumny that characterised the last election was most visible in the news perpetrated by online media houses.
“So, many Very Important Personalities, VIPs, have fallen victim to this clout-chasing online bloggers, several reports of blackmail have also been reported.
According to him, stringent measures are taking to sanitize the social media.
“To take a scrupulous scrutiny of the activities of Nigerians on the social media which tend to portray us in bad light, false and malicious publication that tells stories that misrepresent us as a nation.
“In our determined quest to solve the above mentioned problems, encourage, external investors, safety of lives and properties and the need to pull the Nigerian economy out of the woods on the principal anchor of translating our vast youth potentials to productivity, at our National Executive meeting which held from 7th – 8th June, 2023.
“We deliberated exhaustively on the best approach to achieve same, it should be emphasized that all critical pointers indicated that if the young Nigerians can channel the energy used in propagating fake news and bad Public Relations to positive representation, Nigeria will gain so much and the youth will be the primary beneficiaries.
“We must be patriotic and embrace Nigerians who have dedicated their lives to serving our fatherland”, he said.
Vanguard