THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA HATE SPEECH ON VOTERS’ CHOICES

Abstract

This study was carried out to identify the influence of social media hate speech on voters’ choices in Edo state. The research was carried out as survey research using relevant literature from journals, magazines, books and the internet. three research questions were raised and analyzed for the purpose of the study. A random sampling technique was used in selection of two hundred (200) registered voters in Edo state, Ovia north east local government area simple random technique. The data were collected with questionnaire instrument and analyzed using simple percentage. The result revealed that; hate speeches on social media have a great impact on voters’ choices and have negatively impacted the personality of political candidates, dues to various engagements on different social media platforms like Twitter, voters get to know and see things they didn’t know about political candidates, thereby influencing their perceptions, and factors like religion, political party, antecedents, age, and candidate’s charisma play a huge impact in influencing voters choice. Based on the results, it was recommended that the social media forum should be used for positive purposes and not to disseminate hate speech, the National Information and Technology Development Agency government should monitor what goes onto the social media as many people will believe what they read/see on it and the consequences wrong or misleading information can only better imagined, and political parties, politicians, governmental agencies and ministries should create a robust and effective social media presence to inform and educate youths, especially on social media platforms which has a high concentration of Nigerian youths who believe political news on social media and regards them as credible. This will help reduce the low turnout of voters on election days and reduce the spread of fake news.