Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has criticised Ghana for failing to take decisive action against the growing spread of misinformation, saying the country can no longer afford to delay policy and legislative reforms.Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, July 20, Mr Braimah said misinformation and disinformation have become a serious threat to Ghana’s democracy and social cohesion, yet successive governments have not responded proactively.“The problem is that as a country, we have failed to take measures to respond to something that we’ve all seen as a problem that continues to grow,” he said.According to him, the country has watched the problem worsen over the years while those responsible continue to operate with little or no consequences.“We do recognise that these are acts and conduct that are not positive for our society. We’ve watched on. And as a country, we have not responded in any way. All we’ve done is to continue to tolerate and actually reward people who are perpetrating these acts,” he stated.Mr Braimah said the spread of false information has become deeply entrenched in Ghana’s political landscape, with many people only condemning misinformation when they become its victims.“We seem to be in a state where people only get concerned when these things affect them. But when it is used against their opponents, they see nothing wrong with the conduct,” he said.He added that political actors on both sides have often defended misinformation when it advances their interests.“A lot of the people who are today condemning what this lady has done would have been the same people justifying such developments. Those who are defending what has happened are the same people who would have endorsed it if they were the beneficiaries of it,” he noted.Mr Braimah said Ghana should adopt a broader national strategy to combat misinformation instead of relying mainly on criminal prosecutions after offences have been committed.He pointed to measures introduced in the European Union, the United Kingdom and Germany, where technology companies are legally required to remove harmful content within strict timelines or face substantial financial penalties.“If you go to the European Union, the Digital Services Act has been adopted collectively by the EU. If you go to the UK, the UK has adopted the Online Safety Act. If you go to Germany, Germany has adopted the Network Enforcement Act.”“In all this, what these countries have done or these blogs have done is to say, look, yes, we do recognize that individuals can misbehave. But they use platforms to misbehave. Without the platforms, those misbehaviors would, maybe if they decide to put them up, may not go viral, may not be seen by a lot of people to cause the harm that they could potentially cause,” he added.According to him, while Ghana may not have the capacity to compel global technology companies to comply on its own, ECOWAS could pursue a coordinated regional approach to strengthen accountability.Beyond regulating online platforms, he said Ghana urgently needs legislation to govern broadcasting and digital communication, noting that the proposed Broadcasting Bill has remained under discussion for nearly two decades.“We’ve been talking about the broadcasting law, the Broadcast Bill. Twenty years on, we continue to talk about it. What has happened? Nothing,” he said.Mr Braimah also called for sustained public education to help citizens identify false information before sharing it.“It is time to respond with policy, time to respond with legislation, time to respond with public education, such as media information literacy, and time to also look at what are the civil remedies can be implemented,” he said.He said that any new laws must be developed through extensive public consultation to strike the right balance between tackling harmful online content and protecting freedom of expression.“The international best practice is to ensure that there is adequate consultation, adequate engagement, so that whatever laws come into being would have been something that would be a product of consensus building and stakeholder engagement,” he said.This comes after an Accra Circuit Court sentenced TikToker Camilla Alhassan to one year in prison after she pleaded guilty to charges of offensive conduct and publication of false news arising from videos she shared on social media about President John Mahama.