The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has urged Facebook owner, Mark Zuckerberg and other social media platforms to stop allowing the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to use their platforms to fan emblem of disunity in Nigeria.
Lai Mohammed made the demand in Abuja on Tuesday at a meeting with a team from Facebook.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Special Assistant to the President (Media), Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Segun Adeyemi.
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“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 (IPOB) 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, maimed, and killed.
“They use both English and their local language as it suits them,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
He said the actions of the proscribed group have real-life implications, adding: ”By purveying hate and inciting violence, people are getting killed while the private and public property is being attacked and destroyed. Security agencies and other symbols of government are their choice targets.”
The Minister said despite the numerous complaints to Facebook on the activities of the separatist group, nothing has been done by the company to curtail the group’s excesses on the social media platform.
“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,” he said.