{"id":3976,"date":"2019-12-20T15:15:38","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T15:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=3976"},"modified":"2019-12-20T15:15:38","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T15:15:38","slug":"nigerians-raise-alarm-over-controversial-social-media-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2019\/12\/20\/nigerians-raise-alarm-over-controversial-social-media-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerians raise alarm over controversial Social Media Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lagos, Nigeria – <\/strong>Tens of thousands\n of Nigerians have banded together online to call for the scrapping of a\n bill which, they say, threatens to roll back internet<\/a> freedoms in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed legislation – officially named the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill 2019 – would allow Nigeria<\/a>‘s government to cut off internet access or block specific social media<\/a> platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter at its own discretion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The law enforcement department may direct the NCC [Nigerian Communications Commission]\u00a0to order the Internet access service provider to disable access by users in Nigeria to the online location and the NCC must give the Internet access service provider access blocking order,” it says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise known as the Social Media Bill, the \nproposed act also contains provisions prohibiting statements online \ndeemed “likely to be prejudicial to national security” and “those which \nmay diminish public confidence” in Nigeria’s government – offences that \nwould be punishable by fines of up to 300,000 Naira ($825) or \nimprisonment for up to three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislators backing the bill, which is \nadvancing through Nigeria’s Parliament, claim it will enhance security, \npeace and unity in Africa<\/a>‘s most populous country by curbing the spread of “false statements”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But critics argue it could gag free speech, with many now speaking out via the very platforms they say are at risk of being curtailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 85,000 people have signed<\/strong><\/a> an\n online petition demanding the bill be done away with. The bill’s “aim \nis to curb our use of social media with the reasoning that the Senate \nwants to curb the spreading of false information when in reality they \nwant to limit our freedom of speech and our right to criticise them”, \nthe petition says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A campaign on Twitter saw the #SayNoToSocialMediaBill hashtag top<\/a> the platform’s trending charts in Nigeria recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Protection from Internet Falsehood and \nManipulation Bill … is a backdoor approach to silence critical voices \nin Nigeria,” said Adeboye Adegoke, a digital rights advocate and \nprogramme manager at the Nigeria-based social enterprise Paradigm \nInitiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“[It is a] dangerous path to tread … [and] will serve to \nprovide a legitimate justification for many illegitimate things that the\n Nigerian government already do,” he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislative progress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the opposition, the legislation has continued its \npassage through Nigeria’s legislature, passing a second reading and \nsubsequent vote in the Senate in late November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has since been moved to the Senate’s Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Mattersfor a period of further consideration which could last up to four weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Godiya Akwashiki, a spokesman for the \nNigerian Senate, said the open discussions would allow for citizens’ \nconcerns over the effect of the bill to be aired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Nigerians still have a say over the bill during the public hearing,” Akwashiki told Al Jazeera. “[It] is an opportunity for the general public to express their views, in order [for them] to be captured in the bill.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari<\/a>\n meanwhile told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity that the government\n had “not made a position” yet on the act, which was introduced by \nlegislators and has not been sponsored by the administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have \nraised the alarm over the bill’s possible effect on public discourse in a\n country with an estimated 113 million internet users<\/a>, 30 million of whom are active<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Social media is one of the last remaining places where \nNigerians can express their opinions freely,” Seun Bakare, programmes \nmanager for Amnesty’s Nigeria branch, said in a statement<\/strong><\/a> on December 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The harassment of journalists and bloggers and the introduction of \nthe Cyber Crimes Act have already shrunk the civic space and created a \nclimate of fear,” Bakare added, citing a 2015 piece of legislation that criminalised<\/a> a broad range of online activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Problematic for many reasons’ <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other critics have meanwhile argued the legislation would not only prove restrictive, but also ineffective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berhan Taye, a senior policy analyst at global internet \nadvocacy organisation Access Now and leader of the group’s #KeepItOn \ncampaign in Africa, said the bill was “extremely problematic for many \nreasons”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Taye, the provisions allowing for internet access \nto be cut off would not solve more fundamental problems about the \nveracity of content being shared online – a major talking point in \nNigeria’s latest presidential election in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“An internet shutdown does not solve the problems of \ndisinformation and misinformation,” Taye told Al Jazeera, adding that \n“fake news is a global problem”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any such move could also have major ramifications for Nigeria’s economy, with a 24-hour blackout projected<\/a>\n to cost $134m, according to the Cost of Shutdown Tool developed by \nnon-profit organisation The Internet Society and Netblocks, a \nnon-governmental internet governance observatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, supporters of the Social Media Bill have cast aside \nsuch concerns, arguing it can be applied effectively and deliver \ntransformative security benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Muhammad Sani Musa, a member of Buhari’s political \nparty and a co-sponsor of the legislation, said it would help stop the \nspread of fake news in Nigeria and hence curtail groups seeking to \nundermine the country’s cohesion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Individuals and groups influenced by ideologies and deep-seated \nprejudices in different countries are using internet falsehood to \nsurreptitiously promote their causes, as we have seen in Nigeria with \nthe insurgency of Boko Haram<\/a>,” Musa said while defending the bill in November<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lagos, Nigeria – Tens of thousands of Nigerians have banded together online to call for the scrapping of a bill which, they say, threatens to roll back internet freedoms in the country. The proposed legislation – officially named the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill 2019 – would allow Nigeria‘s government to cut off internet access or block specific social media platforms… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3977,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976\/revisions\/3977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}