The latest move by the Federal Government of Nigeria to regulate social media has kept on generating controversies as netizens have sworn to resist any attempt intended to muzzle the freedom of speech.
Recall that the National Broadcasting Commission,–NBC, had on October 3, sent a bill to the National Assembly, with the primary aim of abolishing and reenacting the NBC act, CAP L11 laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The bill, if it is passed into law, would enable NBC to regulate social media.
Subsequently, NBC has revealed that it had begun engagement with major social media platforms to curtail the excesses of their users.
The development has meanwhile, not gone down well with Nigerians who alleged that the FG was putting pressure on the social media companies to unduly restrict their fundamental human rights.
Some Nigerians fighting the bill had stated that it was a plot by the Nigerian government to curtail the rights to freedom of expression and privacy of Nigerians.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, on its part, had called on the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, to immediately reject the bill as it would only criminalize the permitted and lawful exercise of the human rights of Nigerians.
Note that the immediate past administration led by the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari had also taken a step at controlling the Nigerian social media space over reported fake news and other activities of online users.
