Amnesty International speaks on attempts to regulate social media in Nigeria

Amnesty International in Nigeria has warned that an attempt by the Nigerian government to regulate use of social media could hamper freedom of expression.

The warning came after Femi Gbajamiala, the chief of staff to President Bola Tinuubu, said on Friday that “social media is a menace” and should be regulated.

“The social media regulation law keenly pushed by Nigerian politicians is set to be subject to vague and broad interpretations and will impose incredibly harsh punishments simply for criticising the authorities,” stated Amnesty International Nigeria in a statement.

Amnesty noted that the social media ‘regulation’ would pose a threat to critical opinion, satire, public dialogue and political commentary.

It added that the regulation could be “easily abused” to punish critics of government policies and actions, saying that the government can arbitrarily shut down the internet and limit access to social media.

“Nigeria’s social media regulation? Social media users will be punished for freely expressing their opinions. The government can arbitrarily shut down the internet and limit access to social media. Criticising government will be punishable with penalties of up to three years in prison.” it added.

Nigeria’s government introduced the “Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill 2019,” also known as the Social Media Bill, to the Senate for debate in November 2019.

The bill sought to criminalise the use of social media to peddle false or malicious information. It would have given the authorities arbitrary powers to shut down parts of the Internet and limit access to social media.

In June 2021, the Government of Nigeria suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the social networking service Twitter for close to six months until January 2022.