Nigeria has been exploring ways to regulate social media
usage in the country, Africa's most populous. The country is home to millions
of Internet users and platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Tiktok are
popular.
YouTube "channels and emails containing names of banned
groups and their affiliates should not be allowed on Google platforms,"
Mohammed said he told Google executives in Abuja, the country's capital.
Charles Murito, Google's sub-Saharan African director for
government affairs and public policy, in a statement said the company already
has measures to address the Nigerian government's concerns.
Those measures include a system for trained users to flag
troublesome content, he added. "We share the same goals and
objectives," Murito said. "We do not want our platform to be used for
ill purposes."
The minister said the government was particularly concerned
with online activities by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). The
government has labeled IPOB, a group campaigning for the secession of a
southeastern region of Nigeria, a "terrorist organization."
The YouTube concerns are part of an effort by the
government, the minister said, to protect Nigerian internet users from harmful
effects of social media, especially ahead of a presidential election next year.
Nigeria suspended Twitter in June 2021 and blocked access to
users after the social media giant removed a post from President Muhammadu
Buhari threatening to punish regional secessionists.
The government lifted the Twitter ban six months later. © Reuters
0 comments:
Post a Comment