Get It Right: ICIR Online Game Educates Nigerians On Elections, Disinformation
It released the web app on Feb. 20 in partnership with Digital Public Square, a non-profit based in Canada.
The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), a media organisation with headquarters in Abuja, has launched an online trivia game that educates Nigerians about the country’s electoral process and the dangers of disinformation.
It released the web app, Get It Right, on Monday, Feb. 20, collaborating with Digital Public Square, a technology-driven non-profit based in Canada.
Opeyemi Kehinde, Editor of FactCheckHub, ICIR’s fact-checking arm, explained that the spread of false information during the election season is what motivated the project.
“During the election season, there has always been an increase in misinformation from politicians and their supporters aimed at discrediting opposition candidates or parties or dissuading voters,” he said.
“The trivia game launched for the public this week will help the Nigerian public to be able to identify election misinformation spreading on various social networks, thus helping them to avoid sharing such false information and providing them with accurate information on their voting rights for election day.”
ICIR Editor Victoria Bamas said in a statement shared on Friday that most of the players provided correct answers to questions about permanent voter cards and the collation and transmission of election results.
“During the election season, there has always been an increase in misinformation from politicians and their supporters aimed at discrediting opposition candidates or parties or dissuading voters,” Bamas said.
“The trivia game launched for the public this week will help the Nigerian public to be able to identify election misinformation spreading on various social networks, thus helping them to avoid sharing such false information and providing them with accurate information on their voting rights for election day.”
Over 950 people have played the game as of Saturday, the organisation said.
The partners say they hope to make more information available to the public about ongoing elections. The platform has a series of questions about the voting process and how to verify suspicious claims on the internet. After confirming the right answers, it also gives additional insights into the various topics.
“All the content within the tool has been cross-checked against trusted sources,” Digital Public Square states.
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