‘SOCIAL MEDIA: HOPE OR HUBRIS’,

‘SOCIAL MEDIA: HOPE OR HUBRIS’, 

BEING THE TEXT OF A SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE COMMISSIONER FOR INFORMATION AND STRATEGY, MR GBENGA OMOTOSO AT THE SOCIAL MEDIA HANG OUT 4.O AT RADISSON BLU HOTEL, IKEJA ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2023

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, 

It is a great honour for me to be in the midst of all the eminent personalities at this auspicious event.  Let me express my profound and sincere gratitude to the organizers for the honour bestowed on me as the Guest Speaker of the event.

It is never taken for granted, and I hope we will all be greatly enriched at the end of it all.

Let me start by saying that I find the theme of this talk, ‘Social Media: Hope or Hubris’ quite stimulating, especially in view of the perceived excesses of some social media users. 

No doubt, social media, also known as the ‘new media’, accelerates conversations in a more interactive way that makes communication more effective and worthwhile. It takes communication beyond the limitations of the traditional media, which most often delivers content but doesn’t allow readers, or as the case may be, viewers or listeners, to participate in the formation or development of the content.  

The opportunity it affords everyone to freely share ideas and disseminate information makes social media popular among various kinds of people across the world. More so, it has created an avenue where anyone, who so desires, could find friends, make business contacts and become part of a community of people, who interact and share thoughts online.

Indeed, social media offers an endless opportunity to be seen and be heard without any restriction.

Being a global phenomenon, social media is increasingly being embraced in Nigeria by a variety of people. The ones commonly used in Nigeria include Facebook, 2go, yahoo messenger, BBM, Netlog, Badoo, Eskimo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Nimbuzz, Google+,  Wordpress, Pinterest, , Tumblr, MySpace, Instagram, Telegram, Wikia, Whatsapp amongst others. 

They all offer their users unrestricted access to friends, relations and other acquaintances. The result is an enormous amount of information that can be easily shared, searched, promoted, disputed, and created.

Social media makes the transfer of text, photos, audio, video, and information in general increasingly fluid among internet users. It has relevance not only for regular internet users, but business people as well.  

No wonder, almost everyone is now on the social media. Statistically, around the world, the U.S. has nearly 300 million social media users, as does Western Europe and also Central and Eastern Europe. China has more than 500 million. Across all of Asia, there are more than 900 million. There are some 1.28 billion Facebook users, with 540 million on YouTube, 187 million on LinkedIn, and 255 million on Twitter. 

Nigerians have massively embraced the use of the social media, overtaking  South Africa to become Facebook’s largest users in Sub Saharan Africa with about 53, 982,200 users. Lagos has about 17m Facebook users.

For children, using social media sites helps promote creativity, interaction, and learning. It also helps them with homework and class work. Moreover, social media enables them to stay connected with their peers. 

Twitter promotes social connections among students. It can be used to enhance communication building and critical thinking. 

YouTube is the most frequently used social media tool in the classroom. Students can watch videos, answer questions, and discuss content. Additionally, students can create videos to share with others. Sherer and Shea (2011) claimed that YouTube increased participation, personalization (customization), and productivity. YouTube also improved students’ digital skills and provided opportunity for peer learning and problem solving (2012).  

It was reported that videos kept students’ attention, generated interest in the subject, and clarified course content. Additionally, the students reported that the videos helped them recall information and visualize real world applications of course concepts.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, at this juncture, kindly permit me to state that like every human creation, social media also has its inherent dangers. It could be very toxic and perilous. Hence, there is a great need for caution in its usage. It is part of many things that science has created to give comfort but have inadvertently become agents of discomfort.

Considering the fact that it is not a properly regulated space, social media could be a source of unending trouble and frustration in an already troubled world, primarily due to abuse.

This, perhaps, was why a former Senate President, David Mark, once proposed that measures   be put in place to check the negative tendencies of the social media. The proposal, he noted, was hinged on the seeming lack of control of the platform. Imagine a highway without road signs, markings, traffic lights, traffic officers and others. Chaos will be the order of the day.

On many occasions, the authenticity of information posted on social media is suspect.  A few days ago, some social media users declared former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon dead in a piece of fake news tagged “breaking News”. Of course, it spread fast, like a bush fire in the harmattan. Gen. Gowon had to announce that he was alive, hale and hearty. 

Recently, there was a fire in Ijora. Before the Fire Department could say a word on the incident, some unscrupulous social media users had posted a video of a fire, which happened in another state a long time ago, describing it as the Ijora fire.

Prof Wole Soyinka has been a victim of social media misapplication several times. Mischief makers would put words in his mouth and post them as his. Despite his numerous warnings, they have refused to stop their antics.

During the elections, many fake results were posted online. INEC was struggling to maintain its integrity.

Recently, three Nigerians were charged in the United States after the death of a Michigan teenager who was being blackmailed with a naked picture.

Journalism has no room for fake news. It has controls, in addition to operating a feedback mechanism that gives room for rebuttal when errors are committed. 

On the contrary, social media affords a faceless character the platform to post devious and phony information, sadly without any compelling process or law to enforce rebuttal. The social media has become a tool of blackmail. Some people have cried out over the planned release of their nude pictures and videos by former close associates. People love salacious stories, especially when it borders on sex and concupiscence. Whatever they find in the social media they consume voraciously.

At the end of the day, the victims of such misleading information are faced with the task of fighting for their integrity.  

Though the views expressed by the former Senate President on the subject were misinterpreted in many quarters to be an attempt to gag the social media, many feel strongly that he was making sense. Even in the home of free speech, the United States, Tik Tok is banned in 36 states for security reasons.

The truth, however, is that many people now believe that whether we like it or not, there is a need to ensure some measure of sanity within the social media space. If there is established mechanism in place to control the traditional media, is there any reason why same should not apply to the social media? This is one of the thorny questions in our polity today. 

In China, Myanmar, Russia, Uganda and Turkmenistan, the use of Facebook remains banned. But is this the kind of company we should keep? Tik Tok is blocked in North Korea and Iran. Snapchat is banned in China, Cuba and Iran. In the United States, the home of free speech, Tik Tok is banned for security reasons by 34 of the 50 states – as of April 2023.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, there is a need to put in place clear and proper directives on how delicate and sensitive developing news stories should be handled in the social media. It is professionally and morally wrong for any medium to authoritatively disseminate information on crucial matters they are not sufficiently informed about.  

The most irritating aspect of it is that those responsible for disseminating wrong information on social media don’t usually consider it essential to retract the information based on current reality. One simple rule of journalism is that if the story changes, based on further information, the reporter should indicate as such and apologize for initially misleading the people. But the main purveyors of misinformation are no journalists. This is the tragedy of the situation.

Therefore, efforts should always be made by the public to corroborate news, especially the so called Breaking News, which emanate from social media with credible traditional media for authentication.

Ladies and gentlemen, as I draw to a close, please, permit me to say a few words about our hostess, Bodex. I admire her resilience – she has done this for four years – her courage, her confidence and her boldness. That is the spirit of Lagos under the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is building a 6000 km fibre optic cable round the state so that we can have faster internet, among other advantages. 

As I close, I would like to stress that everyone should be very discerning when it comes to using information obtained on the social media. As good as the social media is, it could be quite injurious to a careless user.

Remember, a doctor operates with a knife to save lives while a murderer can kill also with a knife. 

The watchword, dear listeners, is CAUTION.

Thank you all for your attention!