Beware of Fake News During Election 2020 — Prof. Audrey Gadzepo Warns Ghanaians

The Dean of the School of Information and Communication Studies (SICS) at the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo, has called on Ghanaians to be cautious of information they receive on the Internet especially in the round up to the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.

In an interview with Lord Kweku Sekyi during the Media and Information Week Celebration at Legon, Prof. Gadzepo, said, the spread of Fake News can have negative impact on Ghana's peace if steps are not taken to address it.

She said the phenomenon can be countered if users of the Internet, are educated on how to fact-check sources of information they receive to ascertain their veracity.

According to Prof. Gadzepo, in spite of the potentially-harmful nature of the spread of false information to national security, any attempt by government to ban social media during elections will be an affront to Internet freedom as well as an infringement on the rights of citizens.

She therefore urged authorities to consider alternative ways of forestalling confusion rather than shutting down access to information via the Internet.

The 2019 Media and Information Literacy Week scheduled for 23rd to 31st October, focuses on educating young people, who are heavy consumers of information, on how to verify information they consume, particularly on social media.

As part of the celebration, the University of Ghana in partnership with fact-checking website, Dubawa.org, organised an inter-tertiary quiz competition dubbed, 'Spot The Fake' to emphasise the importance of verifying information.