SOCIAL MEDIA: A PANIC MACHINE THAT THREATENS PUBLIC SECURITY

 


On 30thNovember 2021 a gas explosion in Kisenyi, Mbarara city which left two people dead and several others injured attracted sombre feelings among social media users.

Following the explosion, social media was awash with content that indicated that there was a bomb explosion in Mbarara which claimed people’s lives.

Some of these stories were written by prominent journalists and media outlets who didn’t crosscheck authenticity of the news.

Social media has a massive number of users with an estimate of 3.5 billion users worldwide according to the 2019 Social Media statistics. In Uganda, 3.40 million people are on various Social Media platforms, accounting for 7.3% of the total population.

With such a high number on Social Media it is dangerous to instil fear in society through spreading fake news and misinformation. To my disappointment, this is sometimes done by prominent individuals, Journalists and Media outlets.

In the recent twin bombings in Kampala, a prominent NTV presenter Sudhir Byaruhanga, through his Twitter account informed Ugandans that there was another bomb explosion at Nakasero market which was not true.

These outlets and Individuals have made it a habit of propagating false news to society which threatens the country’s security and the daily activities of the people of Uganda.

Recently Daily Monitor a newspaper which was established in 1992 as the Monitor and launched as the Daily Monitor in 2005 has made it an agenda of publishing fake news for its consumers.  

 

Daily Monitor recently published an article titled “Uganda surrenders Airport for China cash.”  Whereas, there is sort of a funding agreement between Uganda and china over the construction the recently finished new Airport terminal, it is not true that Uganda has surrendered the Airport. Thank God the Chinese ambassador came out to clarify on the issue and deamed it fake news.

In a near recent scenario,   Daily Monitor informed the country through there twitter handle that Red Cross Uganda and Uganda Police had responded to a bomb blast at Akamwesi in Nakawa which was false news. However Damage was already caused. People’s businesses closed and panic sent to the masses.

Information travels faster online, a piece of false information could quickly reach a big number of people and cause great panic among the recipients.

 

 

In a democratic society, the media have the responsibility of promoting democratic principles such as transparency, accountability and freedom of speech and the main players in the media should empower the country’s citizens by keeping them constantly informed with the right information. However, these rights are being abused. There is need for regulation of social media.

The media outlets, Journalists and Individuals on social media should Learn to keep their content positive, contribute to the social economic development of the public by spreading more useful information other than scandalizing content. Before the regulation, as the public we have a duty to delete bad content instead of forwarding. We have a duty to correct the falsehoods being spread by in our social network communities. That is a level of social responsibility where we need to be

 

 

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