The protest, under the hashtag EndBadGovernance, saw Nigerians take to the streets to express their grievances, which led to the deaths of 22 people, according to Amnesty International’s Nigeria office.
Additionally, at least 31 journalists were attacked while covering the EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests, according to the Press Attack Tracker (PAT).
The protesters listed ten government demands: hunger, insecurity, government waste/cost of governance/ bloated nass, #endsars, protecting farms and farmers, human capital development, electoral reform, a living wage, and constitutional and judicial reforms.
However, as Nigerians came out in their numbers, misinformation contents were shared on social media platforms, contributing to the already existing tension.
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Some of this series of misinformation raised serious concerns for fact-checking experts.
“Misinformation could make the protest degenerate into a huge violence. You know people were angry and misleading videos or images could make them make irrational decisions,” said Nurudeen Akewusola, a fact-checker at TheFactCheckHub.
Series Of Misinformation Flood Protest Posts
On August 1st, a picture was used to represent the killing of protesters in Niger State.
This image was published on several media platforms claiming that protesters were shot in Niger state.
After a careful review by ROUNDCHECK, we found the image to be wrongly used. We discovered that the Image came from Kano State where citizens protested in front of the Kano government house.
Also, a video of a murdered woman and police officers was circulated on Meta’s WhatsApp, linking it to the EndBadGovernance protest.
The video was later discovered to be misleading and was a shootout incident that took place in Imo State in July 2024.
On the 3rd of July, 2024, a prominent Nigerian, Dele Momodu, posted a video on Instagram that showed a large crowd protesting on a busy street– to depict the EndBadGovernance protest in Niger State.
This video after a careful review was misleading and emanated from Kenyans’ protest against the finance bill in Nakuru, Kenya.
On the 7th of July 2024, a viral video post on X (formerly Twitter), claimed that protesters chased soldiers away with stones in Kaduna State.
The post, which garnered over 250,000 views alongside over 1,100 comments with more than 1,300 likes, and over 800 reposts as of August 7, was later discovered to be from Kenya during the finance bill protests that engulfed the East African country around July 2024.
Speaking on why the information during protests should be fact-checked, Akewusola continued, saying that there is a need to keep the people informed.
“We need to keep the public informed and save them from confusion. As well, there is a need for us to set the record straight and hold the authorities who were trying to suppress the protest accountable,” he said.
Akewusola added: “ For instance, there was a video of people looting a warehouse and stealing foods. Though it’s old, if it’s not fact-checked, it could spur people to start doing so in every part of the country”.
What Can The Media Do
While highlighting the consequences of misinformation during protests, FactCheckHub Editor, Opeyemi Kehinde noted that it disrupts the free flow of accurate information and has led to violence and killings, referring back to the Lekki toll gate killings during the EndSARS protest.
He stated that a dedicated fact-checking desk within a media organization can aid in monitoring and combating misinformation during protests.
“It can range from a team of three to six Journalists and researchers (or more, depending on the size of the organisation) skilled in using OSINT tools for verification. During such times, the team can be led/supervised by an Editor and tasked with providing verified information to the newsroom from a vast amount of user-generated content from citizen journalists and online users,” he emphasized.
Another way is to ensure that all reporters undergo fact-checking training to help them self-verify news information before publication.
Opeyemi added that media organisations could also disseminate digital and media literacy content to educate the public on the importance of verifying every piece of information they come across online and offline during protests.
