Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has said that the unregulated use of social media and other digital platforms has become a clear danger to global information flow and processes.

The Minister stated this on Monday in Abuja at the opening session of the 11th edition of the UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL)Week billed for 24th-31st of October 2022.

The Minister said the theme of this year’s Global MIL week, which is “Nurturing Trust: A Media and Information Literacy Imperative”, was not only apt but also timely as the world and its leaders contend with the challenge of identifying what is true and what is false, in view of the use of media and information.

Dr. Tawfik Jelassi, the Assistant Director General of UNESCO on Communication and Information, stated that citizens that take digital platforms as their primary source of information are liable to the danger of fake news, misinformation and hate speech.

Dr Jelassi said primary source of information in some countries are basically social media. Sighting that in a country of over 200 million people like Brazil, 78% of Brazilians take WhatsApp as a primary source of information.

According to him, statistic from UNESCO research and study shows that about 73% of Women Journalists are subjected to online harassment and 20% of them are being physically attack. In essence, what starts online moves to the physical world.

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