Human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, speaks to VICTORIA EDEME on the calls for social media regulation in the country
What are your thoughts on the use of social media by Nigerians and the call for its regulation?
Essentially, social media is a means of expression. It is a media for exercising the right to freedom of expression and the press. Social media is not only used by the citizens but also by the government and conventional media. All news or media organisations in Nigeria have an active social media presence. Most government agencies in the country also have an active social media presence. Even on government-owned accounts on social media, we regularly see false information being posted. We also see government officials who go on social media to lie blatantly. I think it is a great disservice and also dubious to say that the use of social media by citizens is for a negative purpose. I am not going to agree with that.
If the issue is that one should not post false information on social media, even the police and the Department of State Services share news on social media that is blatantly false. Are we going to have the heads of those agencies arrested and persecuted for the misuse of social media? Even on the President’s handle, false information is posted. Should the President also be held accountable? Should the spokesperson for the government be tried for posting false news on social media? The whole talk about regulating social media in Nigeria is borne out of the government’s dictatorial tendencies, which have become an increasingly intolerant dispensation.
We are seeing that the political class is losing tolerance for efforts by Nigerians to hold them accountable. I, however, concede that there are instances where social media may be misused; where citizens may use social media to abuse other people. But again, there are existing remedies under the law for such occurrences. One is the civil remedy to sue for libel and I say that as a lawyer who currently is involved in a lot of cases arising from the use of social media.
Is social media without regulation in Nigeria?
The suggestion that social media in Nigeria is without regulation is nonsense to me. In the first place, social media is a self-regulating media platform. Social media platforms such as X, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram are self-regulating. If a person makes a post on X, for example, other users of X may go under the post to challenge what has been posted, give a different account, and in many instances, present evidence to contradict and show the falsity of what has been posted. The owners of the social platform have also introduced community rules and standards, whereby if one posts certain things that violate their community standards, the person who is posting can be sanctioned. They can have the account permanently banned or suspended, or the posts deleted. It is not correct that social media is entirely without regulation. Other users of social media are also allowed by the owners of these platforms to report users who post offensive posts to the community standards that have been set.
The President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, recently stated that social media had become a societal menace and must be regulated. Do you agree with him?
When the government wants to assume the role of an ombudsman to monitor what people say on social media and then try to censor it, it is not because the government wants to sanitise the social media space or to curtail the spread of fake news. To me, the government is the primary culprit of the spread of fake news. Nobody spreads fake news in Nigeria more than the government. All these talks by the Chief of Staff to the President and others about regulating social media are borne out of the fact that they have realised that, unlike the conventional media, Nigerians have used social media to hold them accountable. Nigerians use social media to ask questions that they may not have the privilege or opportunity to ask on television, radio, or traditional newspapers. With social media, everybody can sit in the comfort of their homes or offices and simply challenge what the government has done.
This is just the government reacting maliciously to the continuous deployment of social media by the citizens to hold it accountable. It has nothing to do with the abuse of social media by Nigerians. To see the criminal hypocrisy of the government and those who are pushing this censorship, they were the ones at the forefront of misusing social media when they were in the opposition. They were the ones using social media to call the then-government names. These are people, who when they were in the opposition, were very vociferous, blatant, confrontational, and abusive. Nobody prosecuted or arrested them. Suddenly, we are seeing the mindless arrogance and insipid intolerance by these same individuals who have become advocates of the proper use of social media. Social media has no business being over-regulated anymore. The totality of the argument about regulating social media is borne out of mischief, intolerance, and dictatorship.
Do you think social media regulation is tantamount to putting limitations on freedom of speech?
That is what this is about. It is meant to limit the rights of Nigerians to express themselves. If the government is interested in fake news, the largest culprits will be those in government.
The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission once described social media as a monster and that if it is not regulated, young people could be misguided. What are your thoughts on this comment?
That is an empty statement without substance. If there is any monstrosity, it is the NBC that has become a monster. The NBC has been used to target media organisations that seem to be opposed to the government. We have seen the arbitrary manner they are imposing crimes on broadcast stations against people who are saying things that the government finds offensive. We have seen them do that in a discriminatory manner. We have seen them not sanction government-owned stations. So I don’t think the NBC is a proper advocate in this matter. Social media is already regulated. They said social media is a monstrosity; the same social media that many Nigerians have used to gain help, crowd-fund for their medical needs, housing needs, and get jobs. The positives far outweigh the negative impacts that social media have on Nigerians. We cannot say that social media is useless and has become a monster because the government is offended by how some Nigerians are using social media to target them. That is an embarrassing exaggeration and should not be coming from the NBC.
The NBC should focus more on its primary responsibilities. It is the regulatory agency for broadcast stations and it should do that in a manner that is democratic, sensible, and promotes the fundamental rights of Nigeria. I am completely opposed to any further attempt to use legislation of any kind to regulate social media in Nigeria. Social media is not a problem in the country. It is not the reason kidnappers have a free hand or why bandits are on the rampage. It is not the reason a dollar is N1,500 today; it is not why Tinubu has not been able to deliver on his campaign policies, or why the National Assembly that has been trying to pass a law has not been able to hold the executive accountable.
Social media is not one of the issues that are confronting the country. It is the least of the problems of the nation. This is again another example of the government giving priority to things that do not matter. The country is facing serious governance and leadership issues. That is what they should focus on and what the likes of Femi Gbajabiamila should be speaking to; not trying to distract us with their intolerance, arrogance, and dictatorship.
In October 2023, the NBC sent a social media regulation bill to the National Assembly, so that it can have powers to regulate social media content. What will be the result if such a bill is passed?
The bill is dead and should remain buried. I don’t think it should be resurrected. We don’t need that because if it is to see the light of day, what we will see is the continuous rigging of the civic space. Social media is the last resort for Nigerians. The government is not allowing people to protest on the street, and now they don’t want people to protest on social media. I think they are pushing Nigerians to the wall. This is just a primitive way of governing a nation. In advanced societies, when they speak of regulation of social media, they are not talking about what people are saying against the government, but child pornography and other ills. That is not what the government of Nigeria is interested in. They want to see whether the people are using social media to call the President names or not. The NBC is not right. Their interest in the matter is completely misguided.
The commission said it is engaging Google, YouTube, and TikTok concerning the regulation of social media. What are the perceived effects of this on social media usage?
I see the proposed engagement as a product of joblessness because if the NBC is serious with its work and busy in the offices, I don’t think it will bother about that. This is even the least of the problems in the broadcast industry. Why are they obsessed with social media? In the last election, we saw how Nigerians used social media in a limited way to try to have a sensible electoral process. We saw how voters who were assaulted and electoral malpractices were exposed on social media; things we may never see in the conventional media. That is why they are terrified. I don’t think Google or those tech organisations will listen to them at all. When (former President Muhammadu) Buhari shut down X (formerly Twitter), nothing came out of it at the end of the day. Let the government focus on important things and the real problems of the country, and not create imaginary problems.
Speaking of crowdfunding, what is your take on the recent police condemnation of crowdfunding on social media for ransom payment?
I don’t support crowdfunding for ransom payment but people pay ransom because they don’t have a choice. Even the act of raising money to pay for ransom is evidence of the failure of governance. The problem in this country is that there is no culture of shame. The police are supposed to guarantee the safety of Nigerians. They have failed to do that and Nigerians have devised means to protect themselves and secure the freedom of their loved ones from kidnappers’ den, and the police are coming out to dictate how that should be done when they could not prevent the kidnapping in the first place or rescue those that have been kidnapped. I cannot, in good conscience, castigate the person who resorts to whatever legitimate means to have his loved ones released. I don’t support the principle, but even the law cannot compel the performance of the impossible. If somebody is in an impossible situation, you cannot tell them how to get help or how not to get help.
Other countries are regulating social media in different ways. How can this be compared to that of Nigeria?
China, Russia, Korea, and Iran are not democratic countries. So, I won’t use them as a precedent for Nigeria. When countries like the United States, Canada, and Britain talk about the regulation of social media, it is not the sort of thing Nigerians talk about. Nobody will be arrested in the United States of America for calling (President Joe) Biden a fool on social media. Americans are even more abusive of their leaders than Nigerians. At a point where we are barely surviving economically, what is the talk about social media? It is entirely misguided.
You are the counsel for Chioma Okoli, who was arrested because of her negative review of a product by a local firm on social media. How would you describe that case given the use of social media?
I’ll leave that for the court to determine but we will continue to maintain her innocence. She has a constitutional right to the presumption of innocence. We have also stated that we are willing to face them in court for them to prove their case. That is what I can say on that matter. She exercised her right to free speech, to which she is entitled, and we have not seen any evidence that she committed any crime.
What does the Nigerian law say about the misuse of social media?
Social media is over-regulated in Nigeria because the Cyber Crimes Act of 2016 has over-regulated social media and some of us are even challenging the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Cyber Crimes Act like Section 24. If you look at the applicability of that Act, since it came into force in 2016, in the majority of the cases, it is aimed at protecting the ruling class and influential people. Under civil law, there is the law of libel and defamation, and thousands of cases are pending on that. For example, if someone posts pornographic content of a minor or uses social media to commit fraud, they can be tried. At the criminal level, there is also criminal defamation under some penal codes in our country, which is even supposed to be unconstitutional. The laws are there and they are being weaponized dubiously by the political elite.
As a lawyer who has handled such cases, what do you think is the right way for Nigerians to use social media?
Social media users should be mindful that what they are posting is factual and verified. Every user on social media should respect the rights and reputation of others. Where I differ is when the government is involved. I would not agree that we should use social media to protect the people in government.
