Africa has low rate of reporting false information on Facebook

Madam Adaora Ikenze, Facebook Anglophone West African representative, has said Africa has the lowest rate of reporting false information posted on Facebook globally.

She said though they knew the information posted- especially images and videos were false, they would not report them to the appropriate quarters but still forward them to others.

Madam Ikenze was contributing to a panel discussion on elections and cybersecurity to round-up the week-long celebration of National Cyber Security Awareness Month-2019.

The five-day programme was organised by the Ministry of Communications and attended by school children, heads of departments, internet service providers, among others.

She urged users of social media to report such cases for them to be down-graded or removed for further investigations.

The Facebook’s representative’s said that many of the false information are used to defame the hard won reputation of others; or cause fear and panic among the populace.

She said reporting to Facebook was anonymous and that there is no need for informants to panic as their identity would be protected adding that there are systems in place to block false information.

Madam Ikenze called for intensive social media or digital literacy efforts and asked users to have a sense of responsibility and observe simple measures to protect their account and identity.

Mr Emmanuel K. Dogbevi, Managing Editor of Ghana Business News, called on journalists to crosscheck their facts before they publish any news item.

Source: GNA