By Kaliya Trias, News Editor
The #ENDSARS movement in Nigeria has been gaining attention throughout the past month as SARS has been operating with little to no accountability in the country.
SARS refers to the country’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad which was created in the early 1990s as a subsection of the Nigerian police force. The unit has been accused of police brutality with verified reports of killings, kidnapping, torture, and extortion. As the movement grows, misinformation regarding the movement will likely spread.
Associated Press (AP) is one source reporting reliable information on the #ENDSARS movement. One article quoted Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, as saying the Nigerian youth response should be to “discontinue the street protests and constructively engage the government in finding solutions.”
“Information that comes from known reliable sources and instagram pages are pretty reliable considering they are very similar to what is put out on the news,” senior Joanna Walters said. “But it is important to follow up and fact check the information.
Reuters, the international news organization, reports the ongoings of the SARS movement through a multitude of articles on leaders and first person perspectives of the event.
Bloomberg, the market news and media company, also provides multiple succinct articles explaining the protests and the background leading up to current events. One example of a first-person account on the movement, comes from Adedeji Olowe, the chief executive officer of Trium Networks, “I feared for my life, knowing that getting shot would see no one held accountable,” Olowe said.
Due to the #ENDSARS movement’s gained media coverage in the United States, the mass circulation of information creates the need for individual fact checking.
Reliable and unbiased online news sources are necessary to utilize in order to stop the spread of misinformation.
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