Nigerian Senate To Pass Social Media Bill Despite Rejection By Nigerians

The Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation and Other Related Matters Bill 2019 popularly known as the social media bill, is one of the bills before the Nigerian Senate led by Ahmed Lawan.

SaharaReporters gathered that the Nigerian Senate has concluded a “signed, sealed and delivered” plot to pass the social media bill once the it resumes plenary on September 15.

According to a top source in the Senate, who pleaded anonymity, the upper legislative arm is determined to pass the heinous bill despite the immense rejection by majority of Nigerians.

“They have already concluded plans to pass the bill. They are going to hide behind the COVID-19 issue and other national issues and pass the bill without delay. Their plan is to do it once they resume. It is already signed,” the source told SaharaReporters.

Recall that SaharaReporters reported that the social media bill was rejected by majority of Nigerians during the public hearing of the bill in March.

It will also be recalled that the bill had been rumored to be an “executive bill”, thus making its passage non-negotiable by the lawmakers, who have shown that they were willing to support anything from the presidency.

When asked whether the Senate’s plan had always been to pass the bill without considering public opinion, the source told SaharaReporters, “I am not sure about that, but they believe that Nigerians will accept it and move on the same way they have accepted the Broadcasting Code.”

The reviewed Broadcasting Code was recently passed into law for media organizations in Nigeria.

The reviewed code increased the fine for hate speech from N500,000 to N1m among other things and has already been used in sanctioning Nigeria Info, a radio station, following a recent interview in which a guest criticized the government on one of its popular programmes.

According to its objectives, the social media bill will enable the Nigeria Police Force to “detect, control and safeguard against coordinated inauthentic behaviour and other misuses of online accounts”.

The bill proposes up to N5m or three years imprisonment or both for defaulters.

All attempts to reach Senator Muhammed Sani Musa; sponsor of the social media bill, and Senator Opeyemi Bamidele; Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, on the issue proved abortive as both were unreachable on their official telephone lines.

techmo:
Great move

techmo:
Great move

SmartProf:

It's great to you cos it will solve all of Nigeria's most important problems immediately I guess?

GamalNasser:


It will not stop Buhari from being a failure

We rode to power in 2015 through hate speech.“We (APC) brought hate speech to Nigeria politics “As a Publicity Secretary of the APC, I know how we used hate speech to mobilize Nigerians against the then ruling party.The truth must be told: we are the architect of hate speech and nobody complained about it.

“We enjoyed it and it worked for us.If we think we have failed Nigerians in our change promises, we should be bold enough to tell Nigerians that we are sorry, we couldn’t deliver, but to try to cage them by trying to introduce or recycle Decree 4 of 1984 in the name of hate speech is unacceptable.”

SmartProf:
When asked whether the Senate’s plan had always been to pass the bill without considering public opinion, the source told SaharaReporters, “I am not sure about that, but they believe that Nigerians will accept it and move on the same way they have accepted the Broadcasting Code.”

My Verdict: These guys know that the worst Nigerians will always do is to complain for a maximum of 2days, once another national issue pops up, the previous will fade away and that's it. For e.g does anybody still talk about fuel increment again? Technically we have accepted it.

SouthNigerian:
Terrorists Government! This government is giving her all to lay a foundation of dictatorship that'll reign beyond 2023.They aren't willing to hide their agenda anymore, they are giving it a hot push in the presence of glaring eyes.........

techmo:


A bill is about to be passed by 2/3 majority of 360 lawmakers and members of National Assembly representing 768 local government accross Nigeria, including all parties, tribes and ethnicity on how to regulate our cyberspace yet your own concern is Buhari??


I bet you rejoiced over Trump's Executive order on social media regulations but reject such in your own country because of "Buhari's failure"


.

techmo:
Great move

Racoon:

When tyranny and oppression comes into the land,it will be in the guise of fighting crime ."-James Madison(US President 1809-1817)

SmartProf:
When asked whether the Senate’s plan had always been to pass the bill without considering public opinion, the source told SaharaReporters, “I am not sure about that, but they believe that Nigerians will accept it and move on the same way they have accepted the Broadcasting Code.”

My Verdict: These guys know that the worst Nigerians will always do is to complain for a maximum of 2days, once another national issue pops up, the previous will fade away and that's it. For e.g does anybody still talk about fuel increment again? Technically we have accepted it.