The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, CP Hakeem Odumosu, has described fake news as a phenomenon necessitated by our growing social media and continuous ICT development, which conspiratorially grab on democracy and its freedom of speech element.
The Police Commissioner stated this in his keynote address during the public presentation of the book “How Did we Get Here?” by veteran broadcast journalist, Ify Onyegbule, and a Medialogue on Fake News and Insecurity recently in Lagos.
“Fake news, which Zeynep (2018) described as ‘false or misleading information
presented as news,’ is today a growing monster which must be collectively dealt
with. Either alternatively known as junk news, pseudo-news, alternative facts, false
news or hoax news, fake news generally mis-inform the people, dis-informs them
and also mal-inform the public. As a matter of fact, it is very pathetically
depressing, dismally disheartening, and hard to believe that most strongly argued
discourses on social media today centre around topics which are products of fake
news.
“Today, every owner of a smart phone is a journalist who can assume, compose and disseminate any news at will, without any sort of government or institutional regulations. At this point, it is vital to praise all certified and registered journalists and media houses because they practically have zero-level room for fake news,” he said.
According to Odumosu, fake news has a system which must be understood in order to take care of it.
“First in the system is the composer(s). These composers invent fake news with the aim of achieving some social, political, ethnic or religious goals. They definitely benefit from the fake news. Second in the system is the mis-informed innocent who will mistakenly not double-check the news before believing it, sharing it and also holding to the falsehood. Last in the system are the violent perpetrators who effect violence upon the consumption of fake news. These
perpetrators either have a link with the composer, or are mere fanatics, greenhorns
or gullible Othellos. Noise is a positive fixing mechanism which can be deployed
to halt the composition, sharing or violent reactions to fake news items.
“Though UNESCO in its World Trends Report (2018) submitted that fake news is
originated by individuals who had lost confidence in traditional media; persons
with low levels of critical thinking and news literacy; persons with shifted business
models and also malicious actors, it can also be understood that the purposes may
include creating havocs, fear and anxiety; attempt to create or gather sympathy and
thereby ignite visible reactions. Fake news can as well come from ignorant
personas who have little knowledge of what their ‘fun’ or little ‘art piece’ can
trigger.”
The CP also berated some Nigerian newspapers that use strong and catchy headlines that do not actually reflect the text of the story simply because the headline or caption is deliberately written just to sell the product.
He averred: “Fake news comes in different dimensions. The classification by Wardle (2017) is intuitive and informing in this sense. Perhaps, the most popular known form of fake news is that in which the content is absolutely false, fabricated to deceive or harm. In this form of fake news, nothing occurred whatsoever having to do with the content of the hoax news.
“On another hand, many Nigerian newspapers are used to the utilization of strong headlines as captions which actually are not reflected in the body of the item, simply because the headline or caption is deliberately made to be catchy, just to sell. This false connection between the headline and the real content constitute fake news.”
Shall the regulated media take note of this and work on it?
“Nevertheless,” the Police chief continued, “there exist other dimensions of this phenomenon called fake news: There is this other way of perpetrating fake news in which there is the doctoring or manipulation of a genuine piece of information or news item, manipulatively, and hence distorting the fact. There have also been lots of cooked-up Cock and Bull stories, which falsely impute or bear or are credited to a reputable source, stealing the identity or impersonating such credible sources in order to create a weight for the people to believe it to be true.
“In another form of fake news, the perpetrator loads a genuine content into a false context, with the aim of presenting same as being genuine. The satire or parody dimension is another type which is mostly perpetrated through the use of cartoons or other art works where, in actual fact, there may be no intention to cause harm, whereas the item (cartoon or work of art) amuses some groups.”
Highlighting the consequences of fake news and its negative impact on the society, CP Odumosu opined: “The consequences of fake news are too enormous to capture here and now. Fake news has broken homes, created sharp distrust among ethnic and religious groups in the country. It can force the people to undermine democratic processes and also lose confidence in the government they employ. It has also made the people to pick up arms against one another.
“The #EndSARS protest that was experienced was particularly ignited or triggered by a particular fake news which was later clarified and denounced. #EndSARS protest led to the killing and maiming of the country’s security men; caused damage and burning of police facilities, caused the country to experience setbacks in its economic hub, thereby losing several hundreds of billions and even cracked the security architecture of the country.
Second, the case of rumoured involvement of the wife of the late Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Attahiru in the May 21, 20021, plane crash in Kaduna was an unfortunate scenario.”
Odumosu, who boasts some credentials in journalism, went further in his dissection of fake news, which he said has triggered many of the lingering ethnic, political and chieftaincy crises in Nigeria, “most importantly the herders/farmers crisis which has snowballed into various dimensions of insecurity in Nigeria.”
He regretfully noted: “In his regard, it is perceived that the heightened insecurity in the country is grossly tailored and proportional to escalation and projection of fake news in the land, which is quite is unfortunate, unacceptable and out rightly condemnable,” adding that such are the dangers in fake news and its effect on the nation’s security.
In conclusion, he observed: “Moreover, fake news creates the window or platform for different sorts of conspiracies, hypotheses and theories as grounds to hate, distrust, suspect and even take further dangerous actions against nationhood.”
As a journalist, the CP states that he’s honoring the feast of a colleague in the
media world to make another contribution towards nation-building, saying the effort of Ify Onyegbule is much appreciated. “She has also been very supportive to the development of Lagos and Nigeria’s security systems. It is commendable that she is also instrumentally deploying her journalism into becoming an anti-fake news crusader; hence the war against fake news menace is not an impossible one.
“Successful war against fake news menace is not an impossible one. Today’s
gathering is one of the required steps against the menace; more conferences,
discussions, gatherings, seminars will help in reviewing and revealing more about
its kaleidoscope. The brain behind the book to be launched today is a
commendable effort in this way. More so, these gatherings and discussions should
be held more in the domains of groups (either ethnic, religious or economic groups) where fake news is more rampant and easily propagated.
It is also going to be very effective if perpetrators of fake news are taken to the
cleaners. For now, some laws exist that should be experimented to cure fake news
perpetrators. On one hand, the Hate Speech Law which, though, takes care of only
ethnicity-related fake news, should be fully activated so that as statutorily provided
in the law; perpetrators are either sentenced to life imprisonment or death (if their
fake news has caused loss of life). On the other hand, libel, as a crime that makes
perpetrators liable to punishment, should also be subscribed to.
Many countries across the globe have since discovered the danger fake news poses and have already made laws purposefully to take care of it. An anti-fake news law can be put in place, not to deal with peddlers but to caution the real composers and benefiters of it (fake news) and get them punished or fined appropriately.
The inoculation theory of Compton is also relevant in dealing with fake news. In
line with this theory, public and media space should at all times be filled (inoculated/vaccinated) with factual news so that once fake news arrives; it
becomes hard to believe.”
Also, the CP called on all public relations-related individuals (and organisations) to always be alive and conscious of what is happening. By doing this, they tend to quickly intercept fake news, stamp it Fake News, and quickly feed the public space with the right facts or denounce the fake news content completely.
“Relevant stakeholders also need to sensitise the people, inundating them of what
fake news is; why some ill-minded persons compose them and the huge damage
they may cause in the society. Then, such effort should also teach the people how
to verify or double-check news to affirm their authenticity.
Moreover, a robust relationship with social media companies/firms will help do
some miracles. Facebook and Twitter can help in warning distributors of fake news, removing composers’ accounts and even possibly disallowing successful
continuous disseminations of fake news items.
It is doable to have a society without fake news,provided all hands are on deck. Let me end this keynote address with what everyone should take home and spread: join
the hashtag #checkbeforeyoushare.”
*_A keynote address themed “Issues Around Fake News and Insecurity in Nigeria” by the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, CP Hakeem Odumosu, delivered at the launch of the book, How Did We Get Here, held on May 27, 2021, at LCCI, Ikeja, Lagos._*
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