Paradigm Initiative today launched the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) Report – Media Market Ratings – Nigeria. Using GDI risk rating methodology, Paradigm Initiative sampled 34 most visited media sites in Nigeria. Nigeria’s market size, cultural, linguistic diversity, as well as the overall risks of disinformation and misinformation that have been observed in the past make this analysis important for newsrooms, readers and advertisers who don’t want to support disinformation. 

More than 80% of the sites in our sample presented a moderate disinformation risk. This result was driven largely by low scores on existing operational standards and editorial checks and balances. The Market Risk Ratings – Nigeria Report highlights the power of information in times of crisis. With the advent of COVID-19, there has been an outrage about health issues, the way the government, policymakers, and the media disseminate information. Disinformation is also characterized by the use of a substantial revenue stream that incentivizes and sustains the spread of disinformation, using both artificial and human intelligence.
The report’s findings serve as a roadmap to address the risk areas that were found.
“It’s an immense pleasure to have been able to dissect and dig how information is developed and disseminated in Nigeria, vis-a-vis different editorial policies, but at Paradigm Initiative, we keep working to fight and curb some of the threats aligned with disinformation just like the most recent Twitter ban in the country which we consider fundamental human rights, and as such we are open to working with other stakeholders to fix these obvious problems,” says Khadijah El-Usman, Program Officer (Anglophone West-Africa).
The GDI’s research offers a trusted and neutral assessment of a news domain’s risk of disinformation. By looking at content, operational, and context indicators, the GDI provides a domain-level rating about a news site’s risk of disinforming an online user.