Experts have urged the ECOWAS Parliament to create a strategic agency that would curb the current surge in Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated fake news in West Africa.

The media and information communication technology (ICT) experts made the appeal at the end of ECOWAS Parliament’s week-long 2025 Second Extraordinary Session on Saturday in Port Harcourt.

The experts focused on the sub-theme: ‘Disinformation and Misinformation in the Era of AI: Challenges for Governance in the ECOWAS Sub-region’.

The event aims to sensitise the lawmakers, and West Africans alike, on the advent and deployment of AI to counter digital information manipulation, fake news and hate speech, especially on social media.

Speaking at the panel discussion, the experts decried what they described as the “invasion of the social media space by some unscrupulous people.”

According to them, such elements distort news items or deliberately fabricate falsehood to deceive and cause harm to individuals and the society in West Africa.

“The confusion and destabilisation caused by these trends  can lead to social upheaval and threaten social cohesion, especially in diverse societies, which if not properly handled can make governance difficult.

“I will advise for a strategic agency to monitor disinformation that come through AI because, if the proper thing is done, governance process will move very fast and deliver development goals.

“I also advocate for a guided regulation, which does not impose restrictions that will deny the people basic rights to information in the name of regulation, because it will be counterproductive,” Kierimagha Obomanu, deputy director, Rivers Broadcasting  Corporation, said.

Ms Obomanu stated that the ECOWAS sub-region lacked adequate structure for fact-checking information, and solicited investments in the training of journalists, specifically for that purpose.

Christian Odo, an ICT expert, called for the massive sensitisation of the entire ECOWAS sub-region about the dangers of information manipulation, noting that “people appeal to divisive issues of ethnicity and religion.”

Suleiman Gumi advocated for the sanctioning of fake news perpetrators, saying that AI-induced malicious content surge was being weaponised by individuals to serve their selfish social, political and economic agenda.

Grace Abiante, another IT expert, said sensitisation was key to addressing the fake news menace, while exposure to AI as a manipulation tool could be curbed by a properly regulated framework.

“Fact-checking, such as going to ChatGPT will assist in checking AI-induced fake news in order to mitigate the negative consequences for both individuals and society at large,” she added.

Misinformation refers to false or inaccurate information that is usually spread by someone, with or without the intention to deceive, which may be true but unsupported by facts.

Disinformation, on the other hand, is false or inaccurate information that is spread intentionally by someone who creates and shares it with the intent to mislead others.

(NAN)