Facebook asked to shutdown fake ministers pages

The Zambia Information and Communincation Technology Authority (ZICTA) have been directed by the Government to write to Facebook, asking the US social media giant to close down a number of fake pages. The pages are in the name of government ministers and even the president  were created by crooks to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.

155 fake Facebook accounts have been created in the name of President Edgar Lungu and another 434 in the name of ministers and other senior officials by fraudsters.

The Chief Government Spokesperson Dora Silya said during her weekly press briefing “so far 49 cases have been discovered and as a government we are aware that there could be so many other fake Facebook account fraudsters have created through which they are defrauding people”.

Silya has urged citizens to be careful on how they use social media as fraudsters have invaded the social media space. 

The Government is finally taking action to hold Facebook to account, whether Facebook will respond is another matter given their non-conforming past with other nations’ governments. It is time that Zambian citizens, and Open Zambia held our Government to account.