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According to the Digital 2020 Global Overview Report<\/a>, published in January 2020, about 86 million (85.49 million) of Nigeria\u2019s over 200 million population are able to access the internet (85.49 million) and a paltry 27 million Nigerians are found to be active on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report<\/a>, compiled by We are social<\/a> and Hootsuite<\/a>, documented that 169.2 million Nigerians have mobile (phone) connections. This represents 83 per cent penetration of the total population of 203.6 million people, of which 50 per cent live in urban areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, the report highlights that only 85.49 million Nigerians have internet access, some 42 per cent of the total population. Additionally, only 27 million of those internet-enabled Nigerians have social media accounts that they run actively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there has been an abortive effort to stop the spread of false information on social media in the country as fake-news articles seamlessly circulate, stirring ethno religious tensions among an estimated population of 200 million diverse Nigerians<\/p>\n\n\n\n On WhatsApp<\/a>, which has 1.5 billion in 180 countries, information can go viral in minutes as individuals forward messages along to their friends or groups, without any way to determine its origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A report<\/a> published during the heat of the 2019 election by centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) noted that WhatsApp<\/a> is the most popular messaging app in 40 African countries, including Nigeria, due to its low cost, encrypted messages, and the ability to easily share messages with both individuals and groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This low-cost feature has made it so easy for even the uneducated Nigerians to share messages without a second thought or simple internet search\/verification on broadcast messages they receive. For instance, MTN Nigeria and other internet service providers have a package <\/a>(Goodybag) for their customers to get connected to their Whatsapp messenger for as low as N25.00. This small amount, in the case of MTN, allows their customer to get connected to Whatsapp for 24hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a report<\/a> by BBC, many old Nigerians have been said to be culprits of forwarding unverified broadcast messages despite limits<\/a> on message forwarding to five people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a survey<\/a> carried out in two states (Oyo and Kano) by the CDD and the University of Birmingham on WhatsApp\u2019s role during Nigeria\u2019s February elections in 2019, some respondents made it known that \u201ctheir parents and grandparents are the biggest sharers of misinformation in Nigeria, owing to their lack of digital literacy, reliance on trusted social networks (which WhatsApp replicates online), and belief in the scientific neutrality of technology\u201d. <\/em> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The CDD survey documented a youth in Oyo who recalled that \u201chis father had once sent him a message about a celestial event in which phones were to be turned off before midnight for protection. In his view; older people tend to share these kinds of messages because they feel worried about something happening to someone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some young Nigerians who spoke to The ICIR<\/strong> complained about the rate of broadcast messages they receive from their parents but said they barely read or just ignored it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Our parents are highly protective. That’s one of the reasons why they are victims of unprotected or unverified broadcast messages. Sadly enough, the BC also comes from someone they trust like pastors, alfas, friends, etc but their high level of sensitivity has caused more harm to promote unverified BC than good.” Gafar Okanlawon, a final year student of law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, marshalled<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Elisha Okonkwo, he has blocked his parents over what he tagged as \u201crestless messages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added in a chat with this reporters: \u201cYes oo, I have blocked them, make person get peace.\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt’s always fake and spam messages. Some forwarded messages from like 5years ago<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s what they’ll be sending. My Dad worse, nah messages where they killed someone he will be sending to me”, Hamid Olaniyi poured out his grouse against broadcast messages on WhatsApp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While digital illiteracy is mostly responsible for the indiscriminate sharing of broadcast messages on WhatsApp, some youths whose parent are literate hardly ever received ‘forward-as-received’ messages from their parents<\/p>\n\n\n\n “My dad is usually really careful about info so he doesn’t share except he’s sure. But if he sees the story of how a girl was kidnapped, he’ll send.” Pelumi Akintola told The ICIR<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Why do old people share broadcast messages on Whatsapp? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a phone conversation with The ICIR<\/strong>, Pa Lasisi Adewale, a septuagenarian in Oyo state, explained that \u201cthere is always an element of truth in broadcast messages\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou see, my children also ask me not to send them WhatsApp messages again, but there is this thing I learnt from my father. There is always an element of truth in false information. These messages extend caution and save lives\u201d, the old Lasisi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Felicia John, a mother of four and a retired teacher in Abuja, in her own comment, expressed her belief in the posts as they are from her church\u2019s WhatsApp platform shared by other members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t really know how to check this thing, but I forward them to my family group and children as they are on my church page\u201d, Felicia said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some WhatsApp broadcast messages, for instance, that end with \u201cshare with 10 persons\u201d or \u201cshare with all your contacts\u201d are most likely to get the attention of old people. Some of these WhatsApp broadcast messages hinge parents\u2019 children\u2019s success and guidance on the number of persons they share the post with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Posts that emanate or align with some parents\u2019 religious beliefs are often shared without any second thoughts mostly because of the credence such messages receive from the parents. Most African parents are superstitious and do not joke with religious matters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a research<\/a> published in the Journal, Science has shown that old people are 7 times more likely to share fake-news articles. The study further underscores that older people because of their age may lack the media literacy to sort out facts from fiction as their memory of tools to check news sources deteriorate as they age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, on the need to find out why people share false information on private social media and platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and Apple Messages, Leverhulme Trust<\/a> has awarded a research project grant<\/a> worth \u00a3347,000 to Loughborough University<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the information available on the university\u2019s website, the project, which is slated to run for three years, titled \u201c Understanding the Everyday Sharing of Misinformation on Private Social Media\u201d will be based in the University\u2019s Online Civic Culture Centre<\/a> (O3C) and will provide for significant fieldwork and a full-time research assistant and funded PhD student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n