The activities of Nigerians on the social media are now being monitored
\nfor hate speech, anti-government and anti-security information by the
\nmilitary.<\/p>\n
Director of Defence Information, Major-General John Enenche, told Channels
\nTelevision that the move became necessary in the light of troubling
\nactivities and misinformation capable of jeopardizing the unity of the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
His comments come less than 48 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari said
\nin his national broadcast that some of the discussion on social media in
\nhis absence crossed the line and left him distressed.<\/p>\n
For Major General Enenche, the social media has always been a challenge
\nall over the world and for the military, it is no different.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a double-edged sword and we are also having a bit of it,\u201d he said
\nwhen he appeared on Channels Television\u2019s News At 10, hours after
\nPresident Buhari met with service chiefs and ordered them to strengthen
\ntheir operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine when the President came back and addressed the nation, not up to
\n30 minutes later, a fake speech of the Commander-In-Chief was being
\ncirculated in order to do what? To derail the people. If you are not very
\nsharp and if you didn\u2019t listen to the speech or you don\u2019t have a copy of
\nit like I had it almost immediately, you wouldn\u2019t know. So, looking at it
\nfrom that perspective, it is a challenge everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having observed the possibility that the social media can be misused the
\nmilitary has taken steps to address that. One of such steps is the
\nestablishment of strategic media centres.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are we doing? In the military, we are now taking on it more
\nseriously than ever. We have our strategic media centres that monitor the
\nsocial media to be able to sieve out and react to all the ones that will
\nbe anti-government, be anti-military, (and) be anti-security,\u201d the
\nmilitary chief continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tackle them appropriately with appropriate responses. Ahead of that,
\nwe are also proactive. We have measures in place, scientific measures to
\nbe able to sieve this information and also to get the public and let them
\nknow that some of this information they are getting is not genuine are not
\ntrue and their objective is an anti-corporate existence of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
There has been a rise in attacks by Boko Haram terrorists and it is one of
\nthe things the President advised the service chiefs to check. While the
\nmilitary intends to do just that, Major General Enenche said what they
\nterrorists are doing is not surprising.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cLike I have said before, it is not unexpected being that they
\nhave been degraded, decimated and really busted at camp zero and other
\ncities there through the air bombardment and raids by members of the
\nmilitary, particularly the army. So you will see them spreading out like
\nants that have been busted from an anthill.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to him, the terrorists have benefitted in their attacks from the
\nunending collaboration by insiders and sympathisers among the residents in
\nthe North East.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, I want to assure the general public and Nigerians that measures
\nare in place to begin to take on them and begin to take them out. However
\nhighly placed anyone is or any insider or collaborator is, we are on top
\nof the situation and we are beginning to get our information to begin to
\nhandle them appropriately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The activities of Nigerians on the social media are now being monitored for hate speech, anti-government and anti-security information by the military. Director of Defence Information, Major-General John Enenche, told…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n