The Inspector General of Police, John Kudalor, will not ban social media on the day of elections, as was widely published in the media a few weeks ago, Supt. Cephas Arthur, Director of Communications for the Ghana Police Service has said.
According to him, the earlier proposition by the IGP was an off-the-cuff response to a question a journalist asked.
The police chief was heavily criticised for considering banning social media on election day. Several bodies including the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), Blogging Ghana, and PenPlusBytes criticised Mr Kudalor, describing the idea as “undemocratic”.
But speaking at a camp event by Blogging Ghana on Saturday June 25, Mr Cephas Arthur said there were no plans in place to ban social media on November 7.
“The IGP used the word ‘alternatives’, but it looks as if nobody heard the other alternatives that he mentioned because nobody is discussing that. This was not part of his speech. It was a kind of off-the-top-of-his-head answer. Let us not be alarmed. The IGP is not about to block social media on election day and we are going to have our social media,” he said.
“If you went to our site, you’ll see some inactive social media outlets. We were present, somehow. With ICT advancements, the administration is putting measures in place to ensure that we are also strongly represented there.
“It’s something that we are working hard at and with the recent issue of abusing social media and having the likelihood of checking out information that could cause problems, the administration is doubling up and a lot is being done to permanently have a very strong presence on the social media front. So, I can assure you that we are there, we are working hard, and very soon you will see that we are strongly represented and it will be like that forever and we’ll keep on improving and changing with changing times.”
<<Print>>