The Federal Government on Friday in Abuja sealed agreements with tech giants, Meta and Google on the protection of the integrity of the forthcoming general elections.
The agreements were reached at a meeting between the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and representatives of Meta and Google.
The tech giants agreed to work with the government in flagging and bringing down posts that constituted fake news and disinformation in their platforms.
They also agreed to work with the security agencies to bring down posts capable of inciting violence before, during and after the elections.
Mohammed, however, expressed concern that 22 days before the elections, there has been a noticeable increase in the use of fake news and disinformation on social media platforms.
He said the purveyors of fake news and disinformation were those bent on hindering the success of the elections and throwing the nation into crisis.
The Head, Public Policy (Anglophone West Africa) at Meta, Adaora Ikenze, thanked the minister for initiating the meeting and assured that the requests by the federal government would be heeded.
Speaking in the same vein, the Policy and Government Affairs Lead at Google Dawn Dimowo, assured that they would follow up with the government team, so that they could flag any content escalated to be problematic.
She assured that any unverified sources that post the results of the elections would be brought down.
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