The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Indigenous Language Media in Africa (ILMA) research entity hosted an online international conference on “Social Media, Fake News and Hate Speech” on 22 and 23 July 2021.

Prof Abiodun Salawu, ILMA director, says the aim of the conference was to bring like-minded academics and researchers from across the world to a forum where different pathways could be explored towards addressing the spread of fake news and hate speech on social media.

The three keynote speakers were Prof Pieter Fourie, emeritus professor of communication science from UNISA and founding editor of one of the leading communication journals in southern Africa, Communicatio; Phathiswa Magopeni, group executive for news and current affairs at the SABC, and Lekan Otufodunrin, executive director of the Media Career Development Network in Nigeria and former managing editor for online and special publications of the Nation Newspapers, Nigeria.

Prof Fourie presented on the topic “From journalism ethics to communication ethics”. He advocated for all citizens and opinion leaders to have ethical and moral responsibility when it comes to handling and disseminating news and information, especially on online platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

Speaking on behalf of the South African public broadcaster, Phathiswa said social media has brought with it an unregulated digital media environment, which needs to be critically examined.

“People who share fake news and hate speech via social media deliberately contribute to disinformation to manipulate people and thereby causing reputational damage. These individuals create diversion from mainstream messaging through the distortion of observable reality,” she said.

“This could manifest as coordinated campaigns in the form of edited video/audio clips and textual materials. These spreaders use parody accounts of high profile individuals and organisations, and often fabricate content as a mechanism for cyberbullying and spreading hate speech and bigotry.”

Lekan spoke from a Nigerian perspective about “Maximising social media usage for ‘noiseless communication’”.

He said there is growing concern regarding the destructive impact of social media globally, and that the regulation of social media is currently being debated.

“The question is how the regulation of social media should be done. Certain questions need to be asked such as will this not infringe on an individuals’ freedom of speech, and what responsible media use is.”         

The papers that were presented during this two-day conference will, after a rigorous peer-review process, be published in Habari: ILMA Book Series. (Habari is the Swahili word for news), under the editorship of Prof Abiodun Salawu.

Prof Abiodun Salawu is the director of the NWU’s Indigenous Language Media in Africa research entity.