The Impact of Fake News and the Emerging Post-Truth Political Era on Nigerian Polity: A Review of Literature

Abstract

Since the rising to notoriety of the present "genre" of malicious content peddled as "fake news" (mostly over social media) in 2016 during the United States" presidential election, barely three years until Nigeria"s 2019 general elections, fake news has made dangerously damaging impacts on the Nigerian society socially, politically and economically. Notably, the escalating herder-farmer communal clashes in the northern parts of the country, ethno-religious crises in Taraba, Plateau and Benue states and the furiously burning fire of the thug-of-war between the ruling party (All Progressives Congress, APC) and the opposition, particularly the main opposition party (People"s Democratic Party, PDP) have all been attributed to fake news, untruth and political propaganda. This paper aims to provide further understanding about the evolving issues regarding fake news and its demonic impact on the Nigerian polity. To make that contribution toward building the literature, extant literature and verifiable online news content on fake news and its attributes were critically reviewed. This paper concludes that fake news and its associated notion of post-truth may continue to pose threat to the Nigerian polity unless strong measures are taken. For the effects of fake news and post-truth phenomena to be suppressed substantially, a tripartite participation involving these key stakeholdersthe government, legislators and the public should be modelled and implemented to the letter.

Fake news and its Impact on national cohesion: the Nigerian story

“…The spread of fake news is spurred by the advances in information and communication technologies, precisely the emergence of social media within the present information age. The danger there in fake news is not the "false" information itself; instead, it is what individuals do with the fake information that gets to them (Pate, Gambo and Ibrahim, 2019). In our respective areas of influence as citizens, we can make decisions not to start, encourage, or give any fake or misleading content.…”

“…Before now, the activities of militancy and oil bunkering has ravaged the south-south region of Nigeria. These ugly activities in the south-south are caused by innate leadership mistrust; the people do not trust or believe the political class's promises (Pate, Gambo, and Ibrahim, 2019).…”

“…Hence, this paper proceeds to discuss the drivers of fake news some techniques for combating it. 9 DRIVERS OF FAKE NEWS Pate (2018), cited in Pate, Gambo and Ibrahim (2019), diverse reasons can be adduced for the alarming spread of fake news in Nigeria. The scholars outline the below:…”

When Media Campaigns Fail: Explaining the Factors of Civil Disobedience to COVID-19 Protocols in Nigeria

“…President Trump was mentioned in approximately 38% of all misleading stories, which included miracle cures and the promotion of disinfectants and hydrochloroquine as viable COVID-19 therapies despite the warnings of international health authorities. Pate et al, (2019) suggest that stakeholders in the media industry in Nigeria should work to improve information literacy and education, especially among young people using social media. This will give them a boost to be critical of the information they receive from both traditional and social media platforms.…”

Language as Evidence in the Judicial Process of Fake News of Ferdinand Hutahaean’s Tweet Viewed from Indonesian Legal Provisions

“…On the one hand, fake news is created to deceive and mislead others into believing falsehood or to doubt verifiable facts (White, 2027), and on the other hand, it is used to damage the reputation of a person, group of people or organization (Mara, 2019). With this intention, fake news has finally raised growing global concerns (Pate, Gambo, & Ibrahim, 2019) due to the development of information technology that has caused fake news to spread so quickly (Maulana, 2017, Juditha, 2018. As a result, in Indonesia, for example, throughout 2021, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics found as many as 723 fake news around Covid-19 (Saptoyo, 2022).…”