POLL: Nigerian govt to establish national hate speech register — NHRC
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Hate speech
The National Human Rights Commission on Thursday warned masterminds of hate speech to rethink to avoid turning Nigeria to Bosnia and Rwanda because their conducts are not nationalistic.
The commission also said it would be embarking on certain measures to correct mistakes of the 2023 election created by hate speech.
Such measures included setting up a national hate speech register to record incidences and reports of hate speech from across Nigeria in subsequent elections; training its staff in monitoring and reporting hate speech and setting up enforcement mechanisms on hate speeches resulting from the electoral process.
The Executive Secretary of NHRC, Tony Ojukwu (SAN), stated these while declaring open a two-day roundtable with the theme, ‘The role of the media in countering and reporting hate speech’, jointly organized with the United Nations in Nigeria in pursuance of their unique mandates to promote and protect human rights.
At the event, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Matthias Schmale, said social media platforms have helped the United Nations to engage people around the world in its pursuit of peace, dignity and human rights on a healthy planet.
“But today, this same technology is often a source of fear, not hope. Digital platforms are being misused to subvert science and spread disinformation and hate to billions of people,” he said.
He stated that, while the traditional media can also be sources of hate speech and other means of information ecosystem pollution, the digital space provides more velocity, volume and virality of this hate messaging – also because of the anonymity such platforms can provide to the senders.
Schmale said, “The world today faces an increasingly polluted information ecosystem. The proliferation of misinformation, fake news, disinformation and hate speech in the digital space is causing grave global harm – now. It is fueling conflict, death and destruction – now. It is threatening democracy and human rights – now. It is undermining public health and climate action – now.
“When social media emerged a generation ago, digital platforms were embraced as exciting new ways to connect. And, indeed, they have supported communities in times of crisis, elevated marginalized voices and helped to mobilise global movements for racial justice and gender equality.”
While stating that hate speech can lead to violence, destruction of properties, killing of human beings, disruption of governance and affecting law enforcement, Ojukwu said unless there is peace there would be no development.
He said, “I don’t think any government would want crisis in its hands because if there is a crisis today the President cannot govern, he has to suspend every other meeting and make sure that the situation is calmed down.
“So it is very important to deal with the problem of hate speech because of the consequences of not controlling hate speech and that has happened in so many countries like Rwanda Bosnia, and so many examples all over the world. We don’t need that to happen to us before we take the necessary precaution.
“For purveyors of hate speech, they should know that they are not doing what is nationalistic and that their action has the possible consequences of creating violence in the country. We will not let you rest, we will make sure you are held accountable for it.
“Experience has shown all over the world that uninhibited hate speech has led to a lot of violence and genocide. We surely don’t want that kind of situation here, so we think the UN and the human rights commission think that the major group to partner with is the media and that is why we are here so that we can talk and see in our own environment how can we deal with this issue of countering hate speech.
“We don’t need to use anybody as a scapegoat, what we need to do is to enlighten people and we are also trying to set up an accountability mechanism. Before we recommend anybody for prosecution we give that person a fair hearing. It is all about informing people and making them understand the dangers of this and making them understand that if you create this kind of problem you will be held accountable.”
“Having identified hate speech as an impediment to voter participation and access, the Commission is embarking on the following actions:
“Setting up of a national hate speech register to record incidences and reports of hate speech from across Nigeria
“Training of its staff on Monitoring and reporting hate speech and setting up enforcement mechanisms on hate speeches resulting from the electoral process.
“There is no gainsaying the impact hate speeches had in promoting violence, suppression and other forms of human rights violation before, during and after the elections.
“Following the conclusion of the elections and in looking forward to the three off-cycle state elections later in 2023, there is a need for stocktaking and to mobilize concerted efforts to strengthen the media in countering hate speech as a major precursor to achieving peaceful elections and social cohesion.”
