uche87:
The conversation about regulating social media in Nigeria has refused to go away for some years now. It has been raised again by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and has been supported by other public figures. What makes the idea of social media regulation very intriguing is that it is being raised by politicians. It makes the issue very questionable and highly insidious because Nigerian politicians have sworn never to act in the public interest. This is as alarming as an armed robber complaining about the security architecture in Nigeria. I will be analyzing the issue in sub-sections to make the piece an easy read.


The transition of the Nigerian social media space

I have watched the transition of the Nigerian social media space as an active participant over the years. It used to be like dating networks. The real essence never made sense to a host of Nigerians. Later it became an avenue to connect with old friends who were scattered across the world. Some people would later turn it into a comparative tool for classism i.e. 'I better pass you'. Others used it to monitor the progress of people, especially the ones abroad. Businesses and music artistes soon started taking advantage of the increasing population of netizens. The politicians also came in for 'political business' in the process. Social media soon became a battleground among opposing political groups for who are the saints, sinners, and saviours of the hapless masses. It became a viable field for image-laundering for public figures and the profiles of politicians running for offices were highly exaggerated. Sponsored lies and gross misinformation were also orchestrated by political opponents against themselves. This was how the defilement of social media gradually started. Incrementally, these political rivalries on social media raised the political consciousness of Nigerians. They developed an interest in politics, started following political developments, and jumped on trends.

How the problem started

Today, the Nigerian social media space remains more polarised than ever. If you ever want to experience the heterogeneous structure of Nigeria, wait until the election period and you will be shocked about how people are divided across political, religious, tribal, geographical, economic, and even educational lines. After that, do a comparative study between the electioneering campaign period and the mood during the recently concluded AFCON 2024 where Nigeria united and stood behind the Super Eagles.

As political actors plot their campaign strategies, they factor in the control of mostly Twitter in their political plots. Almost all mainstream politicians have social media influencers/operators under their payroll. These individuals are tasked with spreading desirable narratives including falsehoods. In my view, the downside of social media is a monster created by the same people calling for the regulation of the system.


Enters the legendary Lai Mohammed

The Nigerian social media space was significantly polluted in the heat of the 2015 general elections by the then National Publicity Secretary of the ruling APC - Lai Mohammed. He hounded his party's political antagonists with humongous lies that left the devil shell-shocked. His winning strategy of disinformation was the needed catalyst for other questionable individuals in Nigeria highly skilled in spreading lies. The nodus of fake news went out of hand that the pioneer, Lai Mohammed became baffled at some point. He later advocated for the regulation of social media using his capacity as the Minister of Information.
It is not advisable to trust the intentions of Nigerian politicians. Their original plan is to muzzle the social media space. They are fully aware of the dire economic situation of Nigerians. Their concern is that they wish Nigerians could suffer in silence and allow them to plunder public resources in peace. They don't want to be accountable for their actions. Politicians by nature have no definite stand in life on any public discourse. Today, they are the defenders and tomorrow they play the aggressors. They keep swinging both ways like bisexuals!


Social media is already self-regulatory

Do we have issues with social media in Nigeria? Yes! Do we need regulation? No! The social media space is already self-regulatory. The best way to fact-check any news report is to check the comment section of the news article. If you have a critical and discerning mind, you will see that comment that will either enlighten you or increase your doubts about its validity and reliability. In case the report matters to you, go further by searching for it on other mainstream media platforms. Social media platforms also flag fake content, reduce their visibility, block certain keywords, and sanction fake news peddlers. Furthermore, the laws of libel and slander in Nigeria already cover social media activities. Now and then, lawsuits are seen flying around against people accused of defamation. The Nigerian police also have a structure to combat fake news.
The Nigerian politicians don't have genuine intentions as I have overemphasized. Fake news to them is that scathing news report that doesn't favour them. Social media regulation is the resemblance of a legal way of suppressing dissenting voices. It is the Chinese and Malaysian blueprint of social media censorship. You can't solve a problem that you are a party to.


Osahon George Osayimwen writes from England.

I agree with the writer completely. Yes, there are issues with social media, but social media has its own regulations. But you cant use social media to say all sorts of things and win elections, and then when others start using it to check your administrative performance, it becomes a devil. Therefore, we are not being honest. Social media is the only thing an ordinary Nigerian has left to make his/her voice heard, and if that too is taken, the worst will be seen from the government. Be warned!

Catapault:
Yes they should.

Definitely.

If it will save us from Aisha Yesufu’s screeching voice…

You can't gag people....even on America the beacon of democracy they don't

Birdbyrde440:


It's a global policy, Id2020.
Every individual on this planet will have their bank account linked to their social media.

Start with the terrorist and kidnappers first abi they don't have bank accounts and social media accounts

casualobserver:


free speech has consequences and responsibilities. everyone has a right to free speech. everyone has a right to spread lies and abuse but you also have a right to face the consequences of spreading lies and abuse.

It depends on what you term as lies because there are true lies

Watianoengineer:
Social media should be banned in Nigeria if the federal government wants to restore sanity in our society. Let's go back to the Era of transistor radios for information dissemination

Social media serves as checks and balances

Those devils that want to regulate it are the people that used it to devastating effect during Jonathan's era so why do they want it regulated now? Because it's exposing their failures and lies? Never!!!
If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen. If they can't stand criticism they should stay out of government period.

freeGiftOfGod:
Regulation or not, free speech must not be gagged.


Jesus heals, Jesus delivers, He helps . Come to Him today and you will be brought out of darkness into His wonderful light, out of the dungeon into His glorious liberty.

Pray this: Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus is the son of God, that He died on the cross for my sins and rose again on the third day to my justification. I repent of my sins (mention them) and ask that you forgive me and wash me clean by the blood of Jesus.
I receive and confess Jesus as my personal Lord and saviour. Thank you Lord. DM

Your free speech is agged everyday on Nairaland

casualobserver:


free speech has consequences and responsibilities. everyone has a right to free speech. everyone has a right to spread lies and abuse but you also have a right to face the consequences of spreading lies and abuse.

Exactly social media is 99% responsible for kidnapping, it makes info on anyone moving so easy, but instead of all of us to act, we will be blaming NCC and NIN not being tracked, but who want to track someone is also a Nigerian all is about money. An officer released container loads of tramadol and when told of the effects on d society he said God will not allow it to have much negative effect on people simply cos he was after the heavy cash given to him. Today is the resultant effects. But he has finished the cash collected and even retired now but the consequences of his actions leaves on.

lol, BATIST Werey. Global Policy from your ass. Oponu.

Birdbyrde440:


It's a global policy, Id2020.
Every individual on this planet will have their bank account linked to their social media.

freeGiftOfGod:
Regulation or not, free speech must not be gagged.


Jesus heals, Jesus delivers, He helps . Come to Him today and you will be brought out of darkness into His wonderful light, out of the dungeon into His glorious liberty.

Pray this: Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus is the son of God, that He died on the cross for my sins and rose again on the third day to my justification. I repent of my sins (mention them) and ask that you forgive me and wash me clean by the blood of Jesus.
I receive and confess Jesus as my personal Lord and saviour. Thank you Lord. DM

APC's desire for regulation of free speech is not far different from the modus operandi of the Afghan Taliban.
Inner circle of APC leadership nurture the ambition of Talibanization of Nigeria for an Islamic Republic of Nigeria to be governed with Sharia criminal laws; Sharia criminal laws include stoning people to death for blasphemy, stoning women to death for adultery, cutting off the hands of thieves, among other harsh but obsolete punishment systems.
Muhammadu Buhari vowed in 2001 that he would not stop until Islamic sharia criminal laws are applied in all the states of Nigeria. He started winning millions and millions of votes in the far north after the vow.
Those who knew better in 2014 called APC the Janjaweeed political party.
APC has established a possible 24 years of Muslim presidency for Nigeria, a time frame Talibanization of Nigeria will be planned, and possibly executed.
APC upturned the Christian to Muslim to Christian to Muslim president for which Nigeria was known since 1999 return to democracy.
APC has Muslim-Muslim president and VP - the first time since 1999 when one religious group head the two highest political offices in Nigeria.
Liar Mohammed kicked off APC's programme of lies in 2014.
Today, Tinubu's Chief of Staff who looks like, and dresses like the Talibans of Afghanistan, is in charge of APC's lying machine.

uche87:
The conversation about regulating social media in Nigeria has refused to go away for some years now. It has been raised again by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and has been supported by other public figures. What makes the idea of social media regulation very intriguing is that it is being raised by politicians. It makes the issue very questionable and highly insidious because Nigerian politicians have sworn never to act in the public interest. This is as alarming as an armed robber complaining about the security architecture in Nigeria. I will be analyzing the issue in sub-sections to make the piece an easy read.


The transition of the Nigerian social media space

I have watched the transition of the Nigerian social media space as an active participant over the years. It used to be like dating networks. The real essence never made sense to a host of Nigerians. Later it became an avenue to connect with old friends who were scattered across the world. Some people would later turn it into a comparative tool for classism i.e. 'I better pass you'. Others used it to monitor the progress of people, especially the ones abroad. Businesses and music artistes soon started taking advantage of the increasing population of netizens. The politicians also came in for 'political business' in the process. Social media soon became a battleground among opposing political groups for who are the saints, sinners, and saviours of the hapless masses. It became a viable field for image-laundering for public figures and the profiles of politicians running for offices were highly exaggerated. Sponsored lies and gross misinformation were also orchestrated by political opponents against themselves. This was how the defilement of social media gradually started. Incrementally, these political rivalries on social media raised the political consciousness of Nigerians. They developed an interest in politics, started following political developments, and jumped on trends.

How the problem started

Today, the Nigerian social media space remains more polarised than ever. If you ever want to experience the heterogeneous structure of Nigeria, wait until the election period and you will be shocked about how people are divided across political, religious, tribal, geographical, economic, and even educational lines. After that, do a comparative study between the electioneering campaign period and the mood during the recently concluded AFCON 2024 where Nigeria united and stood behind the Super Eagles.

As political actors plot their campaign strategies, they factor in the control of mostly Twitter in their political plots. Almost all mainstream politicians have social media influencers/operators under their payroll. These individuals are tasked with spreading desirable narratives including falsehoods. In my view, the downside of social media is a monster created by the same people calling for the regulation of the system.


Enters the legendary Lai Mohammed

The Nigerian social media space was significantly polluted in the heat of the 2015 general elections by the then National Publicity Secretary of the ruling APC - Lai Mohammed. He hounded his party's political antagonists with humongous lies that left the devil shell-shocked. His winning strategy of disinformation was the needed catalyst for other questionable individuals in Nigeria highly skilled in spreading lies. The nodus of fake news went out of hand that the pioneer, Lai Mohammed became baffled at some point. He later advocated for the regulation of social media using his capacity as the Minister of Information.
It is not advisable to trust the intentions of Nigerian politicians. Their original plan is to muzzle the social media space. They are fully aware of the dire economic situation of Nigerians. Their concern is that they wish Nigerians could suffer in silence and allow them to plunder public resources in peace. They don't want to be accountable for their actions. Politicians by nature have no definite stand in life on any public discourse. Today, they are the defenders and tomorrow they play the aggressors. They keep swinging both ways like bisexuals!


Social media is already self-regulatory

Do we have issues with social media in Nigeria? Yes! Do we need regulation? No! The social media space is already self-regulatory. The best way to fact-check any news report is to check the comment section of the news article. If you have a critical and discerning mind, you will see that comment that will either enlighten you or increase your doubts about its validity and reliability. In case the report matters to you, go further by searching for it on other mainstream media platforms. Social media platforms also flag fake content, reduce their visibility, block certain keywords, and sanction fake news peddlers. Furthermore, the laws of libel and slander in Nigeria already cover social media activities. Now and then, lawsuits are seen flying around against people accused of defamation. The Nigerian police also have a structure to combat fake news.
The Nigerian politicians don't have genuine intentions as I have overemphasized. Fake news to them is that scathing news report that doesn't favour them. Social media regulation is the resemblance of a legal way of suppressing dissenting voices. It is the Chinese and Malaysian blueprint of social media censorship. You can't solve a problem that you are a party to.


Osahon George Osayimwen writes from England.

You can see it's someone writing from England. Regulation of social media should be the least of worries for any sane, sensible Nigerians at this point in time; and of course we are all aware that our leaders are an insane and insensate bunch of accursed thieves, armed robbers and drug-addicts/barons

Acidosis:



I always consider politicians who talk about social media regulation to be nothing but brainless clowns. I mean, even Mark Zuckerberg, with all his resources and intellect, has not been able to properly regulate just Facebook. Do you people think that social media regulation is about ballot box snatching?

Has Zuckerberg even tried it?

nonsense talk. Will that reduce the prices of food in the market.

Nigerian government is a big failure. What have they regulated or managed successfully?
Can you name one thing the Tinubu government has managed successfully?

Yes..government should regulate the social media space! It’s a menace to human value in Nigeria..my experience with other country doing better than us is not this way..I have leaved in a developed nations and social media and individual right is not violated like it’s done currently in Nigeria. How can someone act like a ghost to insult others from the comfort of their home? How can immoral behavior such as showing of privates be done without consequences in Nigeria? Remember, where your right stop is where others started..

There are existing mechanisms operated by the social media companies people can use to report or block fake and irresponsible use.
People should use them.

The only thing government should do is create relevant laws that will punish criminal, irresponsible and reckless use of the social media.

Where there is no law, there is no sin. Anything goes

Farmerforgoats:
lol, BATIST Werey. Global Policy from your ass. Oponu.

Reported

Why are they always afraid of Gen Z?

YES.

They should do it asap



Block Facebook, Block Nairaland




Make everybody rest

They should regulate the banks and FX before thinking about social media

Social media is not the problem of Nigeria
Useless government
Address the issue of food electricity security etc not social media

The government should not use this regulation matter to padlock the mouths of Nigerians in other to prevent them from venting their anger and frustrations about this crippled administration.

kolosman:
The government should not use this regulation matter to padlock the mouths of Nigerians in other to prevent them from venting their anger and frustrations about this crippled administration.

Some Nigerians need their Mouths Padlocked

Especially those inciting Violence

Social media should be banned in Nigeria if the federal government wants to restore sanity in our society. Let's go back to the Era of transistor radios for information disseminationSocial media should be banned in Nigeria if the federal government wants to restore sanity in our society. Let's go back to the Era of transistor radios for information dissemination...

freeGiftOfGod:
Regulation or not, free speech must not be gagged.

Mumu, regulating social media means gagging free speech.

We use social media to educate, to expose the real reason behind certain government decision. We exposed the hypocrisy of politicians and now they are afraid. The quest to ban social media is dead on arrival. Instead of doing the right thing you want to regulate social media. It will not hold.

If social media is what is making Naira to fall let regulate it. I am surprised that social media is politicians headache.

It should be regulated it has done a lot of damage . Anybody that have access to data just come online some after drinking ogogoro to say anything they like. They give false information, incite violence ,name calling, Zoogeria, etc not minding our image and implication of their information.

I'm disappointed seeing our ancestors supporting the government in regulating SM. People are dieing of hunger the lame duck/ clueless people are talking about regulating SM. Won fi ete le won pa lapalapa... I spits on nigeria government..

only discourage the promotion of nudity for young adult. Do not tax content creators. only tax the platform that promotes young adult nudity

No, APC used that platform against pdp administration to perpetrate propaganda,lies& deceit. It is their turn now they don't want Nigerian to air their views in this terrible state of the country.