Nigeria’s Lai Mohammed asks Facebook to Block IPOB

Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed has appealed to Facebook to block Indigenous People of Biafra incendiary and hate speech especially the violent utterances. Lai Mohammed met with FaceBook team in their office in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. Lai said that Facebook has not done enough to curtail and block  the activities of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on the Facebook platform despite several complaints by the government of Nigeria.

He said: “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, maimed and killed. They use both English and their local language as it suits them.

“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, 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,” he concluded.

IPOB’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu at the moment is standing trial on charges that include terrorism and broadcasting falsehoods. Earlier, the Federal High Court of Nigeria at Abuja, struck out eight out of the 15-count treasonable felony charge the Federal Government preferred against him.