E-Business
Fact Check: Alleged NK Threat to Nigerians, Who Owns @DPRK_News Account?
By now, you must have heard or read about the alleged warning from the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) that Nigerians should stop making mockery of the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un or “lest they pay a heavy price”.
Fact check shows the first time Nigeria seemingly made statement on the rationale behind North Korea missile tests was on February 2016.
A report by Leadership Newspaper quoted by several other platforms with the caption: ‘Missile Test: Nigeria Warns North Korea Not To Threaten World Peace’ quoted a statement credited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as warned the North Korean Government to abide by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718 which requires it to suspends all activities related to its ballistic missile programme.
You can read: http://venturesafrica.com/story/nigeria-warns-north-korea-not-to-threaten-world-peace/; https://www.deltabreed.ng/2016/02/11/missile-test-federal-government-of-nigeria-warns-north-korea-not-to-threaten-world-peace-nigerians-react/; https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/08/north-korea-nuclear-capability-threat-international-peace-don/. Full report as culled: http://nigeriabreakingnews.com.ng/missile-test-nigeria-warns-north-korea-not-to-threaten-world-peacec/. Though, the report seems unavailable on Leadership’s website anymore.
Recall, in 2016, North Korea officially announced it was blocking Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and South Korean websites in a bid to further control access to outside information.
The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications made the announcement, with very few North Koreans have internet access and if they do are limited to a sealed-off, government-sanctioned intranet.
The restrictions make it more difficult for visitors or the small community of foreign residents in North Korea to post real-time information about the country to the outside world.
Fast forward to September 2, 2017, a parody account parodying North Korea issued a warning to Nigerians.
The news service from supposed the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), took to its twitter handle @DPRK_News to issue the warning.
It said: “Impudent peoples of Nigeria are warned against mockery of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, lest they pay a heavy price.”— DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News) September 3, 2017
North Korea and its leader had been top on the news for its nuclear programme with the most recent being its successful test of a Hydrogen Bomb which many World leaders have condemned.
However, no reference was given to the alleged mockery of the North Korean Leader by Nigerians.
But, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek’s fact check shows the twitter handle does not bear the verification icon of twitter as an officially verified handle hence it calls for questioning.
According to Gizmodo.com on May 1, 2015 @DPRK_News account was created in July, 2009, which has probably helped the account seem somewhat plausibly official to many.
“Some of the tweets are absurd, but precisely zero percent of them are funny. Which probably means that this, ‘parody’ account will be with us for many years to come. Let’s just hope media outlets finally get the message that it’s fake so it can fade into obscurity”, the platform reported.
Similarly, Justin Rohrlich writing on ‘The Men Behind the Infamous Fake North Korean Twitter Account’, categorically puts off the twitter account. “The DPRK News Service is not actually the DPRK’s news service—but it’s the closest peek behind the curtain we may get”.
“In fact, the DPRK News Service, which first tweeted in July 2009, is the work of a West Coast data analyst and a North Carolina attorney who also blog at Popehat.com, a self-described ‘group complaint about law, liberty, and leisure’ started in 2004 by former federal prosecutor Ken White.
“The pair, Derrick (data analyst) and Patrick (attorney), prefer not to reveal their last names publicly, going by, variously, Patrick Popehat, Derrick Popehat, Patrick Nonwhite, @NonWhiteHat, and @NinjaDerrick. They shared their thoughts on this latest episode with The Daily Beast, via email”.
Even washingtonpost.com lashed out on the twitter account users, “The statements that come out of the North Korean propaganda machine often seem like parody, with denunciations of ‘imperialist puppets’ and ‘running dogs’ and threats to turn enemy countries into a ‘nuclear sea of fire.’
“That means that many people fall for the outlandish statements put out by DPRK News Service, a satirical Twitter account with an uncanny ability to replicate the tone and peculiar vocabulary of Pyongyang’s agitprop department. (DPRK is the abbreviation of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.) A bunch of media outlets have also fallen for the account, including Newsweek, Fox News, BuzzFeed and, ahem, The Washington Post”.
Visa, global payment services giant, has announced plans to establish a data centre infrastructure in Nigeria.
Andrew Torre, Visa’s regional president for central and eastern Europe and Vice-President Kashim Shettima
According to a statement by Stanley Nkwocha, senior special assistant to the president on media and communications (office of the vice-president) on Friday, Andrew Torre, Visa’s regional president for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, spoke during a courtesy visit to Vice-President Kashim Shettima at the presidential villa in Abuja.
“This is in addition to its investments of over $1 billion in the country, including a substantial technological partnership with @moniepoint to foster digital payment solutions, a $200 million investment in Interswitch, and a partnership with @thriveagric to empower smallholder farmers and enhance food security in Nigeria,” the statement reads.
During the meeting, Torre said the plan to establish the data centre infrastructure aims to bring new technologies into the Nigerian market that would bolster the nation’s growing digital economy.
“Visa has been making investments and will continue to make these investments in Nigeria,” he said.
Responding, Shettima welcomed Visa’s expansion efforts, assuring the delegation that the partnership between Visa and the Nigerian government would continue to flourish.
The vice-president commended the company for investing in ThriveAgric, noting that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is deeply committed to repositioning the agriculture sector, which remains a top priority in its 8-point agenda.
“Nigeria is where the action is. Of the 10 fintechs in Africa, about eight are in Nigeria, with moniepoint as the newest addition,” Shettima said.
“Agriculture is key to the 8-point agenda of the present administration. President @officialABAT is really keen on repositioning the agriculture industry here, and we have to invest in technology, we have to invest in modernisation.”
On January 23, Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech company, announced it secured investment from Visa to support the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Andrew Torre, Visa’s regional president for central and eastern Europe and Vice-President Kashim Shettima
Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has approved N242.8m for the procurement of a Microsoft 365 licence for its Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) as part of efforts to digitise the service’s operations.
Mr Michael Ango, acting executive chairman of FCT-IRS, disclosed this after the FCT Executive Committee meeting chaired by Mr Nyesom Wike, the minister of FCTA, in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ango said that the FCTA was making significant investments in technology to enhance revenue generation and collection.
“So, this is also one of those investments in technology that the FCT is undertaking.
“The licence, if procured, will enhance our ability to move most of our manual processes into automated processes.
“It will enhance our ability to communicate within our offices,” he said.
The executive chairman added that the move would also reduce the use of paper and ensure better record-keeping through the storage of information and documents in the cloud.
According to him, “The licence will essentially enhance our operations and assist us in generating revenue for the development of the FCT under Wike’s leadership.”
Rack Centre, West Africa’s Tier III Carrier and Cloud neutral data centre, has welcomed Olla Cloud Service, a new private cloud service by Olla Systems Limited, a leading provider of innovative technology solutions, to its facility.
Hosting at Rack Centre, Olla Cloud Service runs on a state-of-the-art, cloud-enabled infrastructure for enterprise applications across diverse platforms, including mission critical application, web applications as well as containerised applications using Kubernetes.
Lars Johannisson, CEO, Rack Centre, welcoming Olla Systems, noted that the partnership with Olla Systems Limited would reflect the company’s commitment to providing African businesses with high- quality cloud computing services.
He noted that Olla Systems would enjoy Rack Centre’s 13.5MW data centre campus facility, designed to meet the highest international standards and offering scalable solutions to Hyperscalers, Enterprises, and Cloud service providers.
As part of its commitment to sustainability, the facility is equipped with energy-efficient systems, advanced cooling technologies to mitigate environmental impact and an optimally-designed feature to handle high-density workloads with precision.
According to Johannisson, “With Olla Cloud Service hosting at Rack Centre, clients will experience fast performance and low latency, enabling businesses in Africa to access world-class cloud computing services within a secure and compliant local infrastructure.”
Also speaking, Olusola Adenuga, chief executive officer, Olla Systems Limited, expressed enthusiasm about hosting at Rack Centre, noting that Olla Cloud remains a groundbreaking private cloud solution for businesses.
While highlighting the benefits of the partnership between Rack Centre and Olla Systems, Adenuga disclosed that “subscribing to Olla Cloud Service is cost-effective to customers because of its local currency payment advantage.”
She also noted that the partnership between the duo, provides businesses the opportunity to meet regulatory requirements of data residency, while enjoying world-class infrastructure as a service (IaaS) locally.
“Other benefits of hosting with Olla Cloud include: 24/7 support, unparalleled performance, scalability and agility.” she added.
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