Kefas Bangripga
What is the influence of social media on the wave of; killings, attacks, reprisals and counter reprisals recently witnessed in Jos?
Whenever the issue of regulating the social media in Nigeria arises, a lot of people delve into talking about its efficiency in entrenching some fundamental principles of democracy such as; freedom of expression, political communication and participation etc. People fear that, regulating the social media will amount to a subtle authoritarianism, a sentiment which I also share.
Nonetheless, the social media no doubt has proportionally contributed to the prevalence of civil disorder in Nigeria. In a time like this, when Nigeria is grappling with daunting security challenges, the importance of undisrupted flow of information cannot be overemphaised. Justifiably, the social media serves as a conduit through which we communicate to the global community which by extension helps in checking the excesses of government just like what we saw during the End SARS protest.
But the crux of the matter is, due to the fact that religion, politics and ethnicity are mixed with everything we do in Nigeria, the concept of freedom of expression has been weaponised by people pursuing different agendas and unfortunately the social media is the instrument used in thrusting civil disorder in our country as a way of achieving these agendas.
Evidently, one of the driving forces that promote civil disorder in Nigeria is citizen journalism which is also promoted by the “Relevance Seeking Tendencies” of Nigerians. More so, the social media is now a platform where political propagandists, rumour mongers, ethnic and religious bigots peddle their toxic narratives, agendas and propagandas. It is as a result of this that misinformation and disinformation become inevitable in the Nigerian social media space.
Misinformation is any false information that is spread, regardless of intent to mislead, people, while; Disinformation is any deliberate false and biased information, manipulated narrative or propaganda disseminated to mislead people (Thesaurus Dictionary 2021). The key word here is; Intent. The former could be unintentional while the latter is intentional or deliberate. A significant proportion of Nigerian Social media users are disposed to misinformation because they indiscriminately share information they stumble on from different social media platforms without painstakingly substantiating them.
These are indexes that have emboldened the need for an expedient social media regulation, because they consistently promote civil disorder and by extension constitute a great threat to our National security.
The trust deficit between the government and the people is one of the factors that has been prolonging the social media regulation debate in Nigeria. This is due to the fact that, in Africa, the concept of National security is subtly premised within a political construct; it is defined by the government based on its political interests. In some instances, it is reduced to the level of a ruling political party’s interest where issues that are categorised as “Threat to National Security” are issues considered injurious to government interest. This is what galvanises the argument of people who oppose social media regulation.
However, the social media being a fertile ground for misinformation and disinformation is an indication of its complicity in undermining our social cohesion and security. We have seen how the killing of travelers along Rukuba road Jos, Plateau State snowballed into a major crisis. Reprisals spread to other parts of Plateau State within the twinkle of an eye. People from other northern States wanted to react as a result of the pictures and information peddled in the social media. It almost culminated into national security crisis.
An analysis of some selected Facebook newsfeeds of; Daily Times Nigeria, Arewa Official and Daily Gist Online reveals that, their reportage of the Jos crises were rigged with ethnic and religious profiling.
The data shows that; Daily Times Nigeria used the blurb; “Suspected Muslim Militia Kill 35 Behind Uni Jos”.
Arewa Official used the blurb (in Hausa language); “Jaddawalin Sunayen Musulman Da Aka Yi Masu Kisan Gilla A Garin Jos, Bayan Halartan Zikirin Juma’a” Which translates; “Names of the Muslim Travelers that were Gruesomely Murdered in Jos After Attending Friday Zikiri”.
These are classical misinformation that ordinarily wouldn’t be allowed in to the public domain by the mainstream media because of their tendency to steer emotions toward hatred, reprisals, rancor and acrimony in the State. But due to lack of an efficient gatekeeping mechanism, the social media space has become littered such information. These unconfirmed and unverified information are framed in a divisive manner that they influence people’s passion and push them to retaliate what they perceive as targeted killing of the people they share cultural, religious or political bonds with. The resultant effects of people taking the law in their hands is anarchy, chaos and total disorder with no regards to constituted authorities as we are slightly witnessing in almost every part of this country.
In the case of Disinformation, findings reveal that, propagandists lash on the prevailing social challenges to promote their separation and disintegration agendas using the social media. The data shows; Daily Gist Online reported that, “Fulani Men Intercept 2 Big Luxurious Bus Conveying Igbos Home, Set it Ablaze Killing 230 Igbo Passengers”. From the analysis, the above blurb was meant to serve as a clickbait to a YouTube content which was still within the context of disintegration and separation agenda. The influence of such information is that, it generates public panic and elevate the level of animosity among various ethnic groups. Further analysis shows the subtle involvement of some social media virtual communities or groups. These virtual communities such as; Plateau Voice, Jos Rant, Movement for the Protection of Plateau Heritage and Dignity (MOPPLAHD), The Jos Tribe and so on, served as super spreaders. They are platforms where misinformation and disinformation are dropped. Due to their significant number of followers any information dropped tends circulate with an osmotic effect into the general public.
The Cultivation Theory suggests that; heavy exposure to media contents shapes individuals’ perception of social reality which also affects their attitudes such as; law and order as well as personal safety (McQuail 2010).
In essence our reaction to happenings in our society is significantly determined by the information we consume on the social media.
It is indisputable that social media has become overly integrated into our daily lives. It has therefore become incumbent on Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to come up with modalities for regulating social media without infringing on citizens’ fundamental rights to freedom of expression. For instance, Facebook has a monitoring mechanism that uses an algorithm to identify and isolate; hate speech, violent contents and so on. The same gatekeeping system can be replicated by the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to mitigate the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation in our social media space.
To properly gate-keep our social media space, the following steps need to be taken;
The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) should come up with Online Journalism Codes and should have a unit that regulates the activities of online Journalists.
The Commission should synergise with social media service providers and develop a social media monitoring system that identifies and isolates inflammatory contents.
The Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) should develop a comprehensive digital database for bloggers and online journalists. This will enable easy tracking of online news sources.
Kefas Bangripga 