The Federal Government has said it will not rescind its decision to regulate social media The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said.
For him, those who are critical of the proposed regulation are ignorant of the intent and purpose of the government .
Mohammed spoke in Abuja on Thursday during a courtesy call on him by the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers in Abuja.
He said, “Let me say, straight on, that the intense debate that has been generated by our announcement is a welcome development.
“The fear of stifling free speech or muzzling the media is totally unfounded. We have no such plan. As we speak, people are on the social media criticizing the administration. We have no problem with that.
“But our concern has to do with the abuse of the social media by those who are bent on spreading fake news and hate speech, and the dangers inherent in that for our national peace and unity. No responsible government will sit by and allow fake news and hate speech to dominate its media space because of the capacity of this menace to exploit our national fault lines to set us against each other and trigger a national conflagration.”
