By Chimezie Godfrey
In an effort to combat the destructive impact of disinformation, misinformation, and fake news as Nigeria inches closer to the forthcoming general elections, the RiseNetworks, has launched a fake news verification Mobile App called “Run Am”.
The “Run Am” mobile app, which is an artificial intelligence enabled elections fake news verification mobile project of the Risenetworks, has been created to eliminate fake news and its devastating impact in Nigeria.
The launch of the crucial mobile application is regarded as a new dawn in the history of Nigeria’s elections, and a mile stone towards eradicating the menace and negative impact of fake news on the country’s electoral process and democracy.
Speaking during the Launch on Friday in Abuja, the Deputy Country Director, MacArthur Foundation, Africa Office, Mr Dayo Olaide, who expressed delight over the partnerships that has given birth to the reality of the ‘Run Am’ App, feared that Nigeria’s democracy is under serious threat.
Olaide stressed the need for Nigeria’s leaders to be held accountable, adding that unless citizens begin to hold those who are managing the affairs of the nation to account, the conversation about saving democracy might just be a mere wish.
He therefore stressed the need for Nigerians to begin to pay more attention to electoral accountability, the expressions, and the statements that are made by those who are responsible and in charge of running the affairs of the country.
Olaide stressed that it was important to expose the deliberate disinformation and misinformation of the citizens by politicians, adding that the launch of the “Run Am” Mobile App was a major contribution to that effort.
He said,”We’re really delighted to be partnering with Risenetworks to present to the public this very important app this morning. And the partnership also involves CDD at the Center for Information Technology and Development. So three or four points that I’d like to quickly make, I think the first is for every one of us here to acknowledge the threats that is facing democracy, that globally, democracy is facing serious threats. These threats manifest differently. So if you look into the direction of the United States, for example, which is considered one of the oldest and probably the most stable democracies, the recent event of the January 6, which has now been described as an insurrection, I think actually speaks to one of the manifestations and expressions of the threat against democracy. And if you look down here in Africa, ..we have been seeing a rise in the number of coup d’etat or attempts of coups, some of them failed, and some succeeded.
“In Mali, for example, we’ve seen repeated coups so you will agree with me that indeed, democracy is facing serious threats. And down here in Nigeria, we also have seen in the last 10 years or more, in particular, a rise in insecurity to the extent that the 2023 elections is now being seen as under serious threat, whether or not the elections will hold. I thought to start with that point that the big picture of democracy which we all know, fought very seriously for is facing serious threat.
“The second point I need to also quickly make is, again, to remind us that unless we begin to hold those who are managing our affairs, to account that this conversation about saving democracy might just be a mere wish. So which means we need to begin to pay more attention to electoral accountability, the actions and inactions, the expressions the statements that are made by those who are responsible are in charge of running our affairs.
“I think it’s important that we begin to call them out, when you have candidates make inflammatory statements sometimes deliberately misinforming the public. I think it’s important that we we call them out, we expose these malfeasance, this intentional disinformation that is posing serious global threats to democracy. Many of us will be able to remember the Cambridge analytical, which I think is probably one of the biggest exposition of just how far the change is taking place in the form of attack against democracy. A couple of years back, many of us followed followed that story. And it might interest us to know that the Cambridge analytical may have been rested, but there are several other forms of, you know, attacks that is currently again, still facing a Democrats.
“The third point which will connect to the reason why we are here today is to say that in the last couple of years, we have seen an increasing number of citizen led effort to actually expose misinformation disinformation, and hate speech.
“What we are launching today, I think, is a critical and a major contribution to that effort, but it is not enough that we only expose misinformation , is not enough that we expose the peddlers of misinformation. I think the critical part of the responsibilities that we begin to track those responsible and hold them to account in 2015 and probably 2019. For example, I recall that the National Human Rights Commission had informed the public that they will be tracking inflammatory statements made by political politically exposed persons candidates in the 2015 elections. Indeed, they did that. And there is a report that is out there today that actually identified a number of political gladiators responsible for inflammatory statements, but between 2015 and now, a significant number of them that we know are holding public offices, nothing has happened to that.
“So I think, even as we launch the app today, or we begin to use the app to verify, misinformation and disinformation, we will need our citizens to go beyond exposing those misinformation, and begin to demand that those who are actually driving this type of attack against our democracy are brought to books. And that responsibility is not only that of INEC, the responsibility for holding citizens and all the other actors to account. I think it is a shared responsibility.”
Olaide also called on the Nigerian government to equally play its part in the effort to tackle fake news and hate speech in the country,
“The government must show more intentionality in holding those responsible for hate speech and disinformation to account. I think the media has a significant role to play as well to demand accountability. Civil society groups, I think have probably been more front out in actually calling out these actors who will need the public to also line up behind, you know, the Civic voices and begin to call these actors to account. These are the three substantive points that I think it’s important to make. And with that, I want to say a very big thank you once again, to Risenetworks for this effort.
“Finally, something that is AI led, an app that is an AI led is finally being presented to Nigerians to complement what already exists,” he said.
In a presentation, the Founder of RiseNetworks, Toyosi Akerele Ogunsiji, thanked MacArthur Foundation for their support in making the launch of the mobile app a possibility.
She disclosed that in no distant time and before the general elections they would launch the 2.0 that would cover not only Nigeria but also the entire continent of Africa.
“I think in a country like Nigeria, is one thing to have excellent intention about your methodologies in solving problems that bedevil the country and is another thing to have people and institutions to put their weight behind your efforts and ensure that it comes to fruition.
“I think it’s important to specifically thank MacArthur Foundation. It’s not all the time that you see establishment grant making institutions who span decades that would, put their energy and effort and resources behind something that is so revolutionary, like artificial intelligence when in fact Nigeria itself is grappling with the understanding of the subjects and the concepts of artificial intelligence.
“The second people that we have to thank is as CITAD who are also our partners on the MacArthur side who are the ones who are our collaborators in terms of implementing this project. It’s taken 16 months to build this very remarkable mobile application.
“I stand on the shoulders of giants, like our board members, like our management and even as seen young people who have worked assiduously and tirelessly over the last couple of months, writing the background concepts for this project, working to do the research, the background research, that has helped us to build a really very robust mobile application. That by the time we launched the 2.0, you will be serving not just Nigeria, the southern West Africa and the continent as a whole.
“Young people. Some of them were 16 when we had the last elections in 2019, and now 20 years old, and they have the opportunity to contribute to elevating the conversation around the best practice, around applying technology to our election monitoring systems and ensuring efficiency and accountability.
“On the voter side and on the government side. I think it’s very important for me to recognize our team members at RiseNetworks, because even though this idea popped into my head 20 months ago, and I just said to myself as an artificial intelligence company that we are at RiseNetworks, the very core of our work is around learning, research and work readiness, we’re very passionate about ensuring that we upskill and rescale the next generation of young people around the continent,” she said.
Ogunsiji noted that they are really concerned about how to bring solution to the problems that faces the country and to stop just merely about them.
She disclosed that “Run Am” mobile app has special features that tackles the menace of disinformation, misinformation, fake news and hate speech, adding it would simplify seemingly difficult tasks of verifying informations.
“For us at RiseNetworks, it was really how do we stop talking about the issues and how do we solve the problem? You know, using the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, like data science, like data analysis, like artificial intelligence, like machine learning, because what we’ve done is to put everything that human beings are supposed to sit in 100 man call center, what we’ve done is now compress everything into one simple mobile application that should help you, so instead of you to call your friend to say, well, Abubakar is it true that this has happened in Kotangora or are you in Michika in Adamawa? or are you in Goza in Borno or are you in Ijebuode or Abeokuta in Ogun state or are you in Osun , or you Oshodi in Lagos or in Kano, in Kwara, or you are in Ihialah, somewhere in the East or in Afikpo in Ebonyi state. You see, all you need to do is to pick up the “Runner mobile app”, and run your question.
“And what we’ve also tried to do is to take compiled data from across to all of you work for media organizations, from the nation to Punch, the Guardian, to the Sun to ThisDay to ICIR and Premium times. All of the data that we use to build this platform was collected from your platforms, because you are the ones who provide, the news that goes out to the public.
“What we also did was to take information from non verified, news platforms like Insta blog Nija, Linda ikeji.com, like all those funny, blog names that you care that publish a lot of news that are untrue, so that when you run your questions on the app, you are able to achieve an accuracy level that is based on a ranking system built on artificial intelligence algorithms that helps you to sort of make decisions on whether you need to post that information or not.”
She also solicited for information that would support the upgrade of the mobile to better serve Nigerians especially as the general election is by the corner.
“You know by by empowering us with the information that we need to support the people, the good people and the Government of Nigeria. We check fake news and ensuring that even as we go into the elections in another couple of weeks, whatever it is that we need to do on the app before we go into the elections, we definitely know, that by election day, a lot of people would have already started using it even from the polling stations trying to test the app to say okay, I’m in Oshodi now what is happening in Abulegba.
“We are going to also release the user guide on our website. So that you know how to use the mobile app,” she explained.
Also speaking at the event, the Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Victor Ayodele Aluka expressed his gratitude and commended the Risenetworks for launching the app that would help tackle fake news , disinformation and misinformation in Nigeria.
“So I will start by expressing our gratitude to the organization Risenetworks for developing an app that can help us combat fake news, that help us combat disinformation and misinformation.
“Only yesterday in the office, we were having a meeting with Meta, you know Meta is now in charge of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, about this issue of how do we combat all these fake posts, all those things that tend to undermine the electoral process?
“The department, my own departments, Voter Education and Publicity, that’s where we handle all these issues a lot. And as people who have been watching the electoral process in the past few months, I’ve seen cases of all sorts of posts that are really not true. We encounter them every day.
“In fact, as I was coming now, one of our staff in Lagos was telling me that a sort of post on WhatsApp that has somebody complaining bitterly a recording of a particular center in Lagos, where they are collecting PVCs, and that recording is a false recording. And when you look at it, it looks so real. But find out all of these things are just manipulation, computer manipulations, by people who are really brilliant. Using their brilliance the other way and I was like, try and verify. But she was like, these things don’t happen. People manipulate them, they use the system to edit all these things and make them look clean, and they do them to undermine us. So, on our own we have also tried to find ways of reacting to this.”
The INEC Director promised to identify with Risenetworks and advocated for more collaboration to tackle fake news, hate speech, disinformation and misinformation in the country especially going into the coming general elections.
“We are going to very serious election, is very serious election that will be contested seriously by very powerful parties and individuals more than any time in the history of our country. And now you see a situation were the electoral process will be pulled in various directions and why you have that there will be a combination of both fake news, a lot of misinformation and a lot of disinformation. And we are looking to how we’re going to manage our results to make sure that people don’t misinform Nigerians.
“And so when we have this type of app from a reputable organization like RiseNetworks, we tend to identify with them and to also express our happiness that this is a Nigerian organization that is doing this and of course for the development of our own country and to say thank you. I also look forward to future collaborations with the organization,” he said.
The high point of the event was the launch of the “Run Am” Mobile Verification App. Represented at the event were CDD, and CITAD, among others.
