UN advocates media, information literacy to tackle disinformation, hate speech

As part of efforts aimed at stemming the tide of disinformation and hate speech in the nation’s digital space, the National Information Officer of the UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Nigeria, Oluseyi Soremekun, has canvasses aggressive intervention of all stakeholders to scale up with speed, the promotion of Media and Information Literacy (MIL).

Soremekun stated this at a webinar organised by the International Media and Information Literacy Institute (IMILI), National Open University, Abuja, and other partners as part of activities marking the MIL Week in the country.

Speaking on, “New frontiers: How media and information literacy is transforming lives,” Soremekun argued that the MIL knowledge has capacity to stem the virality of deliberate falsehood and hate speech online and also engender transformative development of man and society.

Drawing inference from the UN ‘Verified’ and ‘Pause’ campaigns, he stressed that members of the public need to be equipped with skills to ethically, efficiently and effectively navigate the digital space.

To him, “people who acquire media and information literacy competencies are more enabled to pause, search, and demand for their rights, Such rights include the right to privacy, access to information, cultural expression, non-racial discrimination and gender equality, among others.”

Speaking further, Soremekun added, “MIL helps to address the challenges of the 21st century including the proliferation of mis- and disinformation and hate speech, the decline of trust in media and digital innovations notably Artificial Intelligence.”

On the current plan of the UN concerning the information ecosystem, he disclosed that UNIC is currently engaging wide range of stakeholders on the UN Global Principles for Information Integrity, which according to him, has five pillars.

Societal Trust and Resilience, which refer to the confidence people have in the reliability and accuracy of the information they access, and resilience to the ability of societies to handle disruption or manipulation of the information ecosystem; healthy incentives, which seeks for advertisers and tech companies to adopt business models that simultaneously uphold human rights and strengthen information integrity and make good business sense; and public empowerment, which advocates a shift in tech company policies and increased media literacy can empower users with greater control over their online experience and the use of their own data.

Others are Independent, Free and Pluralistic Media, which emphasies information integrity is only achievable with an independent, free and pluralistic media. Robust and urgent responses are needed to support public interest journalism around the world; and Transparency and Research, being vital to improve understanding of information environments worldwide and provide evidence-based solutions to promote information integrity. Other speakers were senior software engineer at a UK-based aviation analytics company, Enodi Audu; founder of Trully Verify Africa, Ruhamah Ifere, and others.