A bill seeking to regulate social media has passed second reading at the senate.
The bill entitled, โProtection from Internet Falsehood and
Manipulation 2019โ, passed second reading after senator representing
Niger East and its sponsor, Sani Musa, moved a motion for a debate on
the proposed law.
The proposed legislation was widely criticised following its
introduction to the upper legislative chamber two weeks ago.
While leading the debate on the bill, Musa said the proposed law is
not an attempt to stifle free speech, but an attempt to check the
growing threats which if left unchecked, can cause โserious damageโ in
society.
โWhile the internet has democratised information, the fact remains
that it has also been a weapon in the process which is why governments
across the world trying to mitigate the risks associated with
information transmission via internet by monitoring abuse and
deliberate misconduct,โ he said.
โOne of the disadvantages of the internet is the spread of falsehood
and manipulation of unsuspecting users.โ
The lawmaker said the โhoaxโ of the demise of President Muhammadu
Buhari in London and his purported replacement by one Jibril of Sudan
โare things that threaten the peace, security and harmony of our
peopleโ.
โPenalty for defaulters goes up to N300,000 for individuals and up to
N10 million for corporate organisations and imprisonment of up to
three years or both,โ he said.
But Chimaroke Nnamani, senator representing Enugu east, opposed the bill.
โI not only opposed to this bill, I condemn it in its entirety. Based
on our constitution, there is freedom of information and freedom of
speech,โ he said.
โThere is a cybercrime act that deals with this issue. There are also
laws that deals with false information, libel, slander and so on. Yes,
fake news has done a lot in America and other countries but they have
not brought any law to deal with it.โ
However, the bill passed second reading after it was put to a voice
vote by Senate President Ahmad Lawan.
The bill was referred to the committee on judiciary to report back in
four weeks.
