President John Dramani Mahama has called for stricter regulation of social media platforms following a rise in inciteful and violent online content.
Speaking at his first media encounter on Wednesday, September 10, the President highlighted the challenges posed by the shift from traditional journalism to the “new media,” including platforms like TikTok, Facebook, X, and WhatsApp.
“The last time the GJA came to me, I mentioned that to them that as the world changes and new technologies come, we are moving to not just having the traditional media, into having to what we call the new media. These are all the social media instruments like TikTok, Facebook and X. And so the traditional sense of journalist trained and working in media houses that have corporate identity and can held responsible for the information that you put out is beginning to change. We have new crop[New journalist] that anybody with phone and camera can report news or comment on national issues. Now the point is who holds those people responsible?” Mahama said.
He cited recent incendiary posts linked to the Bawku conflict as examples of how unregulated content can fuel hatred and violence.
“So I’m sending a signal to Ghanaians that we can find you, you those doing hate speeches and things, we’ll use your IP numbers, we’ll trace you and deal with you under the criminal law violence for inciting. But I think that beyond that we must start making regulation for this new media because it’s unregulated so everybody takes phone and say anything.,” he emphasized.
The President’s comments follow recent arrests over threats against him and his family.
On August 12, the Ghana Police Service detained two individuals over a viral TikTok video in which a woman, identified as Yayra Abiwu, aka “Akosua Jollof,” allegedly threatened to kill President Mahama and behead First Lady Lordina Mahama.
Abiwu, believed to be an activist of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in North Tongu, also mocked the recent Adansi Akrofuom helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Defence Minister Dr Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, Environment and Science Minister Dr Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, and six others.
