The immediate past Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has revealed how social media threatened his 40-year old marriage.
Mohammed made this revelation in Lagos at an event to commemorate the 90th birthday anniversary of Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka.
He explained that one of the pressing challenges he faced in office as minister was the spate of fake news, misinformation and disinformation.
While speaking on how the danger almost ruined his marriage, Mohammed said the consequences of fake news, disinformation and misinformation were far-reaching.
“Permit me to share publicly with you today for the first time, how social media threatened the foundation of my forty-year-old marriage.
“It was sometimes in 2018 when I came to Lagos from Abuja for an official assignment. As usual, I retire to bed about midnight, but about 3 am, my wife gently roused me from my slumber.
“At first, I panicked, fearing that there had been a security breach, but my wife’s mien belied that possibility, for she was calm and composed.
“Solemnly, my wife asked me if I was fully awake as there were some serious issues to discuss,” he said.
The former minister described the accusation from his wife as “bombshell”.
He said he could not believe that his wife could believe the fake story in circulation crediting huge sums of money in overseas accounts to government functionaries/ministers under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
According to him, social media remain the platforms of choice for the purveyors of fake news, anti-state groups, anarchists, secessionists, terrorists and bandits.
He noted that while in government, his ministry uncovered 476 online publications that were dedicated to spreading fake news against the previous administration.
The former minister said fake news has become exponential through the use of Artificial Intelligence and deep learning techniques to create highly realistic fake or manipulated videos, audio recordings or images.