Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has appealed to editors in media houses to control the use of hate speech on their websites to promote national unity.

The centre’s Coordinator, Hate Speech Project, Malam Hamza Ibrahim, made the appeal at a news conference held at the centre in Kano on Wednesday.

He said that the centre had noticed minimal use of hate speech in hard copies of newspapers, yet their websites accommodated them.

“The centre has captured 263 ethnic based hate speeches, 121 religious based hate speeches, 31 elections related hate speeches and 21 Biafra agitation hate speeches in October and November 2018.

“We have recorded 250 hate speeches on Facebook, 175 on Websites of conventional newspapers, 12 on Blogs and six from Twitter,” he said.

The centre however appealed to Newspapers Proprietors of Nigeria (NPAN), to regulate the appearance of hate speech on Newspaper websites.

It also appealed to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to be strict on political jingles which have undertones of hate speeches aired on many stations.

Furthermore, CITAD advocated to all media stations to make effective use of the Nigeria Media Code of Elections Report (the 2018 revised edition) as guide against use of hate speech.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that CITAD the support from MacArthur Foundation has been monitoring and countering hate speeches on media platforms since 2014.