Nigeria and the struggle to regulate social media

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Nigeria and the struggle to regulate social media

Nigeria and the struggle to regulate social media

January 26, 2022

Recent events in the news have shown that the Federal Government (FG) will not shy away from placing an outright restriction on the activities of social media platforms operating in Nigeria, notwithstanding local and international criticisms/objections. The fallout of the FG’s position has however proved that an outright ban on social media platforms not only stifles the freedom of speech, which is a hallmark of any democratic society, but is also harmful to economic development, particularly for a developing economy like Nigeria. As such, the goal should be effective regulation of social media platforms and not outright restriction.

In Nigeria, the plan to regulate social media dates as far back as 2019, with the introduction of the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill 2019 (also known as the Anti-Social Media Bill) at the National Assembly. The Anti-Social Media Bill sought to criminalise the peddling of false or malicious information through social media in. Although the Anti-Social Media Bill scaled the second reading at the Nigerian Senate, the general consensus was that the bill will hinder freedom of speech and freedom of the press. This led to major push back from stakeholders, including through protests against the passing of the bill¹. Public sentiments against the Anti-Social Media Bill and the wider issue of social media regulation in Nigeria is a major hurdle for the FG to scale prior to regulating social media platforms in Nigeria as envisaged.

Another issue that has plagued the regulation of social media platforms in Nigeria is the lack of a clear legal and regulatory framework for the same. In June 2021, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) placed an advertorial in a national newspaper requesting every online broadcast service provider and social media platforms operating within Nigeria to apply and obtain a broadcast licence from the NBC. The directive by the NBC was issued pursuant to Section 2(1)(b)(i) of the National Broadcasting Act (“the NBC Act”)², which states that: “The Commission shall have the responsibility of receiving, processing, and considering applications for the establishment, ownership or operation of Radio and Television Stations including Cable Television services, Direct Satellite Broadcast (DSB), and ANY medium of Broadcasting”.

Although the NBC Act does not provide a definition of the term ‘broadcasting’, the agreed position seems to be that the term in its ordinary meaning does not apply to the activities of social media platforms. The Media Rights Agenda Group (MRA)³ recently filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja challenging the legal authority of the NBC to regulate and license social media platforms in Nigeria. The position of the Media Rights Agenda Group is that by seeking to regulate social media platforms, the NBC is acting outside the scope of its statutory powers⁴.

While Nigeria continues to grapple with the issue of social media regulation, other countries are moving swiftly with their regulation objective of transitioning from self-regulated social media platforms to government-regulated platforms. For example, the United Kingdom recently proposed a draft Online Safety Bill which aims to establish a new regulatory framework to tackle harmful content online. As of December 2021, the bill was reviewed by a Joint Committee of Members of the House of Commons and Peers from the House of Lords, and a report detailing their recommendations has now been published⁵. In addition, the United States of America is also in the process of putting in place appropriate regulations, while Germany has already passed into law the Act to Improve Enforcement of the Law in Social Networks (Network Enforcement Act) in 2018 despite the various criticisms of the law⁶.

To actualize its regulation objective, the FG must strike a fine balance between the need to protect Nigerian citizens from the harmful effects of social media usage and the preservation of the constitutionally guaranteed right of Nigerians to freedom of speech. In the United Kingdom, the proposed Online Safety Bill seeks to protect young people and clamp down on online racist abuse, while also safeguarding freedom of expression. This is a balance that must be evident in any law proposed for the regulation of social media. In addition, where the NBC will be utilized as the social media regulator, its establishment law must be amended to confer it with the requisite statutory power as the NBC Act as of today only provides for the regulation of traditional media.