We Tracked 387 Hate Speech On Social Media In November – CITAD

Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has said it tracked a total of 387 Hate speech on Facebook and Twitter handles in Nigeria in November.

This was made known to the public by Hamza Ibrahim, CITAD Coordinator, Countering Hate Speech Project, at a Post-Gubernatorial Election Press briefing organised by the Centre and supported by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Thursday in Lokoja.

Ibrahim said, “Our analysis established that the speech instances occur in textual, video, pictorial and symbolic forms and 32 per cent of the offending species were ethnic-based while 26 per cent were election-related,” he said.

According to Ibrahim, ethnic-based and election-based, dominated the list, beating religion-based hate speech which used to top the list in the last two months.

He said, “We want to specifically draw the attention of the entire people of Kogi to the dangers and consequences of hate speech and therefore urge that they neither engage in or accommodate hate speech on social media platforms or at community gatherings.”