The Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigerian Union of Journalists, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre and other stakeholders have rejected the proposed law on Protection from Internet Falsehoods, Manipulations and other matter related.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, was passed into second reading on November 20, 2019.
Speaking during his presentation, Coordinator of PLAC, Clement Nwankwo, said the bill was completely unnecessary because there was an existing law that needed to be amended to address the issue raised by the sponsor of the bill.
Nwankwo said: “The bill has huge ramifications that could threaten the fabric of Nigeria’s democracy and the achievement of its outline fundamental objectives that are aided by the development of technology such as social media tools which facilitate citizen participation and engagement with their elected representatives in the 21st century.
“This law would be a threat to human rights and legislates on existing issues that law already covers.
“Legislation that should be passed by the National Assembly should work in furtherance of fundamental rights and not as a tool to limit the remits of the said right.
“It could lead to repression of freedom of expression in a democratic setting, creating an ascendency of the government as the only source of information.
“PLAC is urging the Committee on Judiciary, Human Right and Legal Matters to discountenance the Protection from Internet Falsehoods, Manipulations and other related matters bill in the light of its threat to constitutional recognised freedoms.”
Also speaking, NUJ President, Comrade Chris Isiguzo, stated that the union did not subscribe to the anti-social media Bill and will continue to oppose it.
The NUJ President said: “We have variously expressed our position on this Bill.
“This Bill in summary seeks to pigeon hole Nigerians from freely expressing themselves.
“The NUJ is totally opposed to this Bill and we want to advice the sponsors to withdraw same.
“This is also an unnecessary proliferation of laws because we have the criminal code and the penal code, most recently is the cybercrime law of 2015.
“Proliferation of law is not a unique ingredient of democratic governance.
“We are not so much against the fact that fake news has done terrible damage to our national life.
“The people should not be stopped from expressing themselves.
“Government can regulate platforms but regulating end users is against the spirit of good governance.”
Also kicking against the bill, a Director of the NCC said: “We are responsible for making sure the quality of the service provided is up to standard and not responsible for what is hosted.
“It is our opinion that the National Assembly may need to redraft the Bill completely to ensure it is in line with the provisions of the law.”
Speaking against the bill, the Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, said the proposed anti-social media bill was a fatal accident and dead on arrival
Sowore described the bill as crude and outdated, noting that lawmakers should have put energy on how to fix the constitution through referendum.
He said: “The Nigerian Government is the biggest purveyor of fake news.
“It is categorically false for government to be telling us that the economy is working when we know it is not working.
“The final thing I want to say is that this bill is dead.”
Speaking further, Sowore said SaharaReporters was the first news platform to break the news that former President, Umar Musa Yar’adua, was terminally ill, but it was described as false.
He noted that if the bill had been passed at that time, he would have been in jail for allegedly spreading fake information.
Sowore said the bill was aimed at protecting only those in power and not the masses.
He said the system was working in Singapore where the plagiarised bill emanated and cannot be forced on Nigerians.
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