| Abstract: |
‘Fake news’ has existed under different nomenclatures such as rumour and propaganda. However, it has gained more scholarly attention recently. The threat of fake news renders democratic societies vulnerable and cannot be ignored. Through its toxic mix, fake news is considered a threat to human society and security. Given the difficulty in its operationalisation, this study explored what qualifies a story as fake as well as the dominant fake news about insecurity in Nigeria. It employed a fake news model to scrutinize the alleged fake news and how Twitter users express sentiments about it. Data consist of two complementary strands. The first looks for the alleged fake news stories about Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram on the CrossCheck Nigeria and Africa Check websites where these stories were debunked. The search through the websites returned 22 related debunked fake news. The second strand is the content analysis of 4,359 tweets produced by 3,101 Nigerian Twitter users. Tweets were collected through the followthehashtag.com for tweets published between 31st March 2018 and 31st March 2019. Findings problematise the understanding and operationalisation of fake news. They further establish that Boko Haram Insurgency and Fulani Herdsmen crises dominate the list of debunked fake news which have deepened insecurity in Nigeria. |
