Mr Alhassan Yahaya, Zone E Vice-President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), has advised Nigerians to desist from sharing fake videos and stories that could threaten the prevailing peace in the country.
Yahaya gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Gombe, following the recent trend of sharing fake videos on social media.
“As citizens we have to be proactive; we have to know that we are custodians of society. We have to be very factual in our operations as a people.
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“ It is our collective responsibility to defend the country in anyway possible because fake videos and news will not do any good to any country,” he said.
Yahaya lamented that just few days ago, a story was shared that a train was attacked on its way to Kaduna by bandits, adding that the story was first published by that organization in 2018 and we are now in 2019.
While agreed that sanctions should be meted out on any organisation that was misleading the society and trying to create confusion.
“The issue is now very common and the NUJ is trying to scritinise reputable online organisations with a view to adopting them as members of NUJ.
“But unfortunately, there are certain organizations that some people thought they are reputable but are involved in sharing gory pictures and fake videos, stories and so on,’’ he said.
He stressed the need for media houses in Nigeria to upgrade their software so that once a story was trending on social media, they could use the software to verify if the story was true or fake.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had on September 5 at a news conference in Abuja, urged Nigerians circulating fake videos to desist from doing so. (NAN)