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CITAD Engages Students to Combat Hate Speech

by Abdulazzez YZ

By Haruna Gimba Yaya.

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has conducted a two-day sensitization workshop for students of tertiary institutions to combat hate speech.

The workshop which held in Gombe had participants drawn from schools in the six states of the North-east geopolitical zone.

 The Executive Director of the centre, Dr Yunusa Zakari Ya’u, said they engaged students of higher institution of learning because they constituted 80 per cent of the social media presence, especially on Facebook and WhatsApp where most hate speeches are been perpetrated.

He said the workshop aimed at expanding the perception of the participants on how to curtail the spread of hate speech in Nigeria ahead of the 2019 general elections.

He said CITAD seeks to discourage them from using the free space provided by the online and social media, to carry out hate or any dangerous speech capable of causing violence in the country.

“The use of technological tools in combating hate speech becomes necessary bearing in mind the damages hate speech has done to the country, especially during previous elections. Because peace can only prevail when we live in a hate speech free society,” Ya’u said.