The Director General of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Dr Joseph Ochogwu, has hinged the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation in Nigeria on the pursuit of selfish gain, ineffective policies, low media literacy and the weakness of institutions in fact-checking and probing integrity of information exchanges in the nation’s ecosystem.
He said that the combination of these factors was critical in propelling the phenomena of hate speech, misinformation and other social and print media vices in the country.
Ochogwu stated this, yesterday, during a two-day training of trainers on combating hate speech online and offline organised by the IPCR and the Building Blocks for Peace Foundation (BBFORPEACE) in Abuja.
The training, which brought together over 20 young participants from across the six area councils within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is supported by the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund (NYFF), coordinated by LEAP Africa.
Emphasising the importance of youth empowerment and positive deployment of technology to shape the country’s information ecosystem.
