Nigerian Govt Meets Facebook Team, Makes Important Demand from Social Media Platform over IPOB Activities

• Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, has held a crucial meeting with a Facebook team
• At the meeting, the information minister told the Facebook representatives to stop allowing IPOB to use their platforms to incite violence
• Mohammed said the Nigerian government would be monitoring Facebook and other social media platforms closely to ensure compliance with the demand

FCT, Abuja - Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, has asked Facebook and other social media platforms to stop allowing the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to use their platforms to incite violence and instigate ethnic hatred in Nigeria.

A statement by Segun Adeyemi, Mohammed's media aide, indicates that the minister made the demand in Abuja on Tuesday, May 17, at a meeting with a team from Facebook.

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He said since IPOB had been proscribed and classified as a terrorist organization, Facebook has no justification for yielding its platform to the organization to further its campaign of hate and destabilization of the country.

“I have called this meeting to enable us to discuss the increasing use of Facebook by separatists and anarchists, especially those of them based outside the country, to instigate violence and ethnic hatred in Nigeria.

“For whatever reason, they seem to have now chosen Facebook as their platform of choice. And their tools include disinformation, incendiary statements and hate speech.

"They use Facebook broadcasts to reach their followers, who are in thousands. They tag those opposed to their violent ways as 'saboteurs' who must be attacked, m*aimed and killed.

"They use both English and their local language as it suits them,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

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IPOB's actions on Facebook have real-life implications - Mohammed

Speaking further, Mohammed said the actions of the proscribed group have real-life implications.

''By purveying hate and inciting violence, people are getting killed while private and public property are being attacked and destroyed. Security agencies and other symbols of government are their choice targets," he added.

The minister said despite the numerous complaints to Facebook on the activities of IPOB, nothing has been done by the company to curtail the group's excesses on the social media platform.

He continued:

“Our social media people have been monitoring these separatists, anarchists and purveyors of hate, and have been reporting their atrocious actions to Facebook, but all they get are default responses that their complaints have been received and are being looked into.

"Most often than not, nothing is done about such complaints... The truth is that whatever Facebook is doing to check these people is mere tokenism and is totally ineffective."

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We will be monitoring Facebook, other platforms closely, says Mohammed

Mohammed said the government would be monitoring Facebook and other platforms closely in the days ahead to ensure compliance with the demand, as it steps up the campaign for the responsible use of social media.

He said:

“We have always advocated a responsible use of social media, and consistently called on all stakeholders to join us in achieving this. Some have tagged our efforts as an attempt to stifle social media.

"They are wrong, because we have no intention of preventing Nigerians from using social media responsibly. All we have been advocating is a responsible use of social media."

Lai Mohammed says like Twitter, all social media platforms operating in Nigeria must be regulated

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the federal government said it was set to amend its relevant statutes and code to enforce the operational conditions of Twitter in Nigeria on other social media platforms.

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Information minister Mohammed made this disclosure in Cairo at a meeting with his counterpart, Egypt Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Dr Amir Talaat.

The meeting was on the sidelines of a bilateral discussion with Africa Export Import Bank, Afreximbank, on how Nigeria can access funding to support its growing creative industry.

Source: Legit.ng