Again, Senate Moves to Regulate Social Media
Following the initial attempts by the Senate to regulate the social media, which was met with a stiff resistance from Nigerians, the Chairman Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime, Senator Abdul Fatai Buhari has warned that if the social media is allowed to go unregulated, it could cause doom for the nation, especially now that Nigeria is going into the election year.
Buhari, disclosed this in Abuja at the 2018 Legislative-Stakeholder Conference on Cybersecurity, with the theme; “The Implications of Disruptive Technologies on National Security and Economy,” organised by the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime.
To ensure adequate legislative framework to help Nigeria contend with the challenges of global cybercrime, he said the bill to regulate social media activities had scaled through the first reading at the Senate.
Buhari said the committee had received a lot of petitions from Nigerians, especially those that have fallen victims of false accusation through social media, calling on the National Assembly to regulate it.
According to him, “I remember in the beginning of this administration, when we were trying to bring in law to regulate the social media, I could remember what we saw at that time was not palatable.
“But with this new development that everybody is being attacked particularly on false information. What they do is to look at your face and age, and go to any of the social media platforms and write rubbish against the personalities of credible people and nothing happens.”
The Senator added: “Even in the developed world, they regulate the social media. We need to face the reality that if we allow the law to go lose without regulating the social media, it is going to cause doom, particularly now that the country is approaching its election year.
“If developed country like America is crying that their system was hacked during their election, who are we?”
He said Nigeria has an existing Cybercrime Law that was signed by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, but stressed that the law was inadequate to contend with the current challenges, hence, the amendment in the area of social media to regulate its activities, which has passed its first reading.