Man arrested for fake news on coronavirus
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Police in Kenya have arrested a 23-year-old man for publishing false information on the spread of coronavirus.
Elijah Muthui Kitonyo was arrested in Mwingi town in eastern Kenya for claiming that the government gave misleading details on the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the country.
The tweet on a fake account, which was widely circulated on social media over the weekend, claimed that the patient had originated from Rome in Italy and not the United States through London as stated by the government.
The arrest was confirmed by directorate of criminal investigations in a tweet.
He will be charged with publishing false information that can cause panic.
Violating Kenya’s cybercrimes law could attract a fine of $50,000 (£40,000) or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or both.
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday warned citizens against publishing and sharing misinformation on coronavirus.
-Adom
ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson
[email protected] An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.
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