The youth of Zini have been exposed to the devastating dangers of mis/disinformation to society including violence, loss of lives and property, displacement of people, and disintegration of communities.

A Member of the Upper West Regional Peace Council, Prof Samuel Marfo, has therefore cautioned the youth not to allow themselves to become agents of mis/disinformation that would bring harm to society but should become ambassadors working against the spread.

Prof Marfo was speaking during a youth awareness creation programme on hate speech, mis/disinformation around elections, religious tolerance, and protracted conflicts, held at Zini in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region.

Funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the project is being implemented by the National Peace Council across selected communities in the Upper West, Upper East and North-East Regions.

Prof Marfo explained that disinformation was the deliberate presentation of false but attractive information with the intention to hide the truth, deceive, misguide and to create confusion among people for a desired outcome.

The Prof Marfo, who is also a Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), noted that misinformation was false information that is spread due to ignorance, or by error or mistake, without the intent to harm.

He said mis/disinformation was more pronounced on the social media space and that the youth were the major consumers of social media content, which makes them vulnerable.

He said because of this, there was the need to create awareness among the youth and build their capacity to be able to identify mis/disinformation and appreciate verification of information before sharing on the digital platforms.

Participants who were feeling very enlightened expressed gratitude to the Peace Council and its partners for the engagement and promised to also share the information with their family members back home.