NJOMACS

Social media disinformation campaigns are now constituting a threat to the consolidation of democracy globally, including Nigeria. This has been exacerbated by the easy access to, and decentralised nature of the platforms. The focus of this research was on the evaluation of the influence of social media disinformation campaigns on the electorate in Edo State, in the 2023 Presidential Election in Nigeria. The research design was survey, while the population of the study was drawn from the major towns in each of the Senatorial Districts in Edo State- Ekpoma (Edo Central); Auchi (Edo North); and Benin City (Edo South). The sample size for the research was 384, while the sampling techniques were multi-stage sampling and purposive sampling techniques. The instrument for collecting data was the questionnaire. One of the key findings was that X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube, were used greatly in the disinformation campaigns during the election. The researcher recommended, among others that, owners of social media platforms, especially Facebook, WhatsApp, X, and YouTube, among others, should set stringent rules for the use of their platforms during elections, and should also monitor the content, so that they can detect and take down fake news.