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Growing worries in Nigeria and Kenya over widespread of fake news on the internet, says BBC poll
The number of clicks on blog and website is the new currency in media buying, thus everything must be done to get it.
A recent poll by the BBC World Service states that 88% of Nigerian and 85% of Kenyan are worried about the hazy line between the real and fake news flooding the internet. Hence, prompting their governments to consider regulating citizens' activities on the internet.
The survey, which involves 18 countries across the globe, further revealed that 79% of respondents expressed worries about what is authentic as regards information gotten from the online platform.
For Africa, Nigeria and Kenya have the highest level Internet penetration rate. Thus, making fake news or propaganda spread easily among the public.
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However, only China and the United Kingdom have a relative moderate online environment, and it is as a result of high government regulation of online activities. More so, the majority of respondents in these countries expressed support for continuation of the government's online monitoring programs (67% for China and 53% for the United Kingdom).
On a global assessment, government regulations of citizens' online activities was rejected by the majority of the respondents (58%). As it is considered a means if curtailing people's right to freedom of speech and expression.
Pulling Internet traffic and achieving high bounce rate have been noted as some of the main drivers for a wide spread of fake news. These two indicators are used as key parameters in media buying by corporate organizations and media agencies.
Thus, making online platforms to adopt any method that would drive traffic to their blog/websites, one of which is creating sensational stories.
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