President John Dramani Mahama has urged the regulation of social media, warning that platforms like TikTok, X, Facebook, and WhatsApp are being misused to spread hate speech, incite violence, and target public officials.
Speaking at his first media briefing on Wednesday, September 10, Mahama highlighted the shift from traditional journalism to the “new media,” where anyone with a smartphone can report news or comment on national issues without formal training or accountability.
“The last time the GJA came to me, I mentioned that to them that as the world changes and new technologies come, we are moving to not just having the traditional media, into having to what we call the new media.
These are all the social media instruments like TikTok, Facebook and X. And so the traditional sense of journalist trained and working in media houses that have corporate identity and can held responsible for the information that you put out is beginning to change. We have new crop[New journalist] that anybody with phone and camera can report news or comment on national issues. Now the point is who holds those people responsible?” Mahama said.
He cited recent incendiary posts linked to the Bawku conflict as examples of how unregulated content can fuel hatred and violence.
“There are some incendiary statements that have been made in the Bawku war that is fuelling what is happening there, making people hate each other. This falls in the ambit of the National Signal Bureau.
So, I’m sending a signal to Ghanaians that we can find you, you those doing hate speeches and things, we’ll use your IP numbers, we’ll trace you and deal with you under the criminal law violence for inciting. But I think that beyond that we must start making regulation for this new media because it’s unregulated, so everybody takes phone and say anything,” he emphasized.
The President’s remarks follow the recent arrests of individuals who threatened him and his family online.
On August 12, the Ghana Police Service detained Yayra Abiwu, also known as “Akosua Jollof,” over a viral TikTok video in which she allegedly threatened to kill President Mahama and behead First Lady Lordina Mahama.
Abiwu, reportedly an activist of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in North Tongu, also mocked the Adansi Akrofuom helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Defence Minister Dr Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, Environment and Science Minister Dr Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, and six others.
Another suspect, Prince Ofori, alias “Fante Comedy,” was also arrested, while authorities are pursuing additional individuals linked to the video.
Spoken largely in Twi, the footage contained graphic threats and expressed political allegiance to the NPP. Police have urged the public to remain calm and stressed that misuse of social media for incitement or threats is criminal and dangerous.
