CSOs seek media partnership to tackle fake news during elections

Safeguarding Online Civic Space (SOCS), a group of civil society organisations (CSOs), has called for media support to fight fake news during the elections.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, Funmi Akinyele, chairperson of SOCS, said the group’s goal is to “protect Nigeria’s online civic space” before, during, and after the elections.

Akinyele said the group has trained fact-checkers across the country to counter election misinformation and disinformation from misleading the public.  

“The Safeguarding Online Civic Space (SOCS) group is a loose cluster of mostly youth-led civil society organisations and business membership organisations from diverse areas within the social sector,” she said.

“As the general elections are approaching, the overarching goal of this project is to protect online civic space by combating voter misinformation and disinformation while improving access to accurate civic information inclusively.  

“Unfortunately, some individuals, either by omission or commission, have distorted information, leading to misinformation, disinformation, and malformation. The misuse and repression of both offline and digital civic spaces, no doubt, have contributed to the perceptions, mostly negative, of members of the international community about Nigeria. 

“To address this, the safeguarding digital civic space for electoral integrity (SDSEI) project is engaging critical stakeholders across government, telecommunications, civil society, and the general public, who have been united by an overarching interest in protecting the online civic space to maximise the benefits and minimise the threats for proper enlightenment and education of the populace on their civic rights regarding the general elections, irrespective of cultural, religious and political affiliations.”

Akinyele asked the media to support the group’s efforts to combat voter misinformation and disinformation to “improve inclusive voter and civic education and generate evidence regarding the openness and integrity of the digital civic space while tracking the political, and economic environment by giving the project the required publicity so that it gets to every part of the country”.

She asked the media to “establish a supportive climate where the project’s success determines the electoral landscape’s agenda and serves as a watchdog for future elections”.  

She said the hashtag — #ProtectYourVote9ja, #YourVoteMatters9ja, #NoToFakeNews9ja — will be used to campaign against fake news regarding elections on social media.

 “The digital civic space must be safeguarded to enhance the integrity of the electoral process, especially with the introduction of digital tools,” she added.