Misinformation has been circulating on social media, claiming that billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote is the ‘Owner of Nigeria’.
The source of this misinformation appears to be a result of Google’s search algorithm misfiring and displaying his Wikipedia profile as a response when someone queries ‘Who is the Owner of Nigeria?’.
A lot of people have taken screenshots with their searches and shared them on Twitter, it even reached one of Nigeria’s popular comedians who posted about it too.
However, contrary to claims making rounds, there is no legal or constitutional basis for this false accusation that Dangote controls the country.
As an explanation for the situation, it must be noted that Google merely displays articles already published online, and if it can’t find any relevant information to a query, it often offers up random names from Wikipedia.
This incident marks not the first time Google’s search algorithm has sparked confusion over false information, there have also been similar anomalies where it suggested Agbani Darego was the ugliest Nigerian woman in the past.
To sum up then, all evidence points to this misunderstanding emerging from Google’s search algorithm providing inaccurate or misleading results based on what is published online.
Aliko Dangote may be a successful entrepreneur but he doesn’t run Nigeria, which is headed by its President whom citizens elect through a democratic process.
Article updated 1 week ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
