The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali has hinted that security agencies in the country would commence the monitoring of social media posts of prominent Nigerians to tackle “propagation of hate speech”.
He said this while addressing State House correspondents after President Muhammadu Buhari’s Thursday meeting with security chiefs at the Presidential Villa.
Dan-Ali said, “Relevant security agencies should as a matter of urgency tackle the propagation of hate speeches through the social media, particularly by some notable Nigerians.”
However the retired general failed to define the class of Nigerians he described as “notable”.
Recall that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed had last year said that the Federal Government had no plans to censure the traditional or new media.
He said at the time, “We have said it before and we want to re-state it: the federal government has no immediate or long-term plan to stifle press freedom. Even the social media, with its warts and all, will neither be regulated nor have its operations tampered with.”
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