By Kola Alhassan
The Federal Government is poised to regulate social media and purge it of inappropriate content.
This was made known on Monday in Abuja by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
He noted that ritual killings have taken a worrying dimension.“The fact that some of these ritualists said they learned the money-making tricks from some social media platforms has given a further fillip to our campaign to rid social media of unwholesome content.
“Call it social media regulation or whatever, no serious nation today will allow its social media space to be suffused with dangerous content. As we have said many times, we have no intention to stifle the media or constrict the social media space. But we will not relent in our efforts to ensure responsible use of the social media,” he said.
The Minister lamented the killing of Sofiat Kehinde, a 20-year-old girl, who was killed for money ritual by four teenagers who revealed they learnt ritual on social media.
He lauded the media for the wide coverage given to ritual killings.
Mohammed said the National Orientation Agency (NOA) was collaborating with religious and traditional organisations as well as civil society groups to ensure behavioural change programmes for youths.
The Minister also said the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) had given a directive to consider ritual killings for censorship in their movies.