MRA rejects Nigerian govt’s try to control Social Media ‘by the again door’

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) right this moment known as on the Federal Authorities to discontinue its try and undertake a “Code of Observe for Interactive Pc Service Platforms/Web Intermediaries”, accusing it of making an attempt to control social media and different on-line platforms by the backdoor by circumventing the legislative course of.

MRA described the draft Code of Observe developed by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and revealed for public feedback as a careless try and usurp the powers, capabilities and authority of the Nationwide Meeting in addition to a breach of the constitutional rights of Nigerians.

NITDA’s Head of Company Affairs and Exterior Relationship, Hadiza Umar, issued a “Press Launch” Monday asserting that NITDA issued the Code of Observe which it’s presenting for public enter, on the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari in accordance with its mandate below the NITDA Act, to standardize, coordinate and develop regulatory frameworks for all data know-how practices in Nigeria.

Condemning the trouble, Ayode Longe, MRA’s Programme Director, mentioned: “The Federal Authorities is clearly making an attempt to avoid the legislative course of in favour of a backdoor strategy to control social media and different web platforms. It’s curious that the Authorities has chosen to make use of an administrative doc to surreptitiously create legal offences because the doc states unequivocally that any platform or web middleman chargeable for violating its provisions can be liable to prosecution and conviction.”

He argued that NITDA’s misuse of the time period “Code of Observe” to explain the doc quantities to performing below false pretences to dupe Nigerians into believing that the federal government is looking for to guard them when its actual intention is so clearly to regulate social media and different Web platforms by compelling them to register with the federal government and thereby muzzle the appropriate to freedom of expression on-line.

Mr Longe contended that the doc is a breach of Articles 19 of the Common Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Nigeria’s treaty obligations below the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which provides everybody the appropriate to freedom of expression, together with the “freedom to hunt, obtain and impart data and concepts of every kind, no matter frontiers…”

In response to him, “the identify is problematic. Though it’s termed a code of observe, it’s in actual fact not meant to supply steering for the implementation of any particular regulation or regulation. Somewhat, it creates legal offences which aren’t contained in any present Legislation and makes an attempt to legitimize them by a obscure reference to its enabling Act and different legal guidelines, which is past the remit of any such administrative doc.”

Mr Longe argued that the underlying rationale for most of the provisions of the doc are unrealistic and unreasonable as they defy logic and customary sense.

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He mentioned: “In right this moment’s globalized world, is it potential or sensible to anticipate international Web platforms like Fb, Twitter and others to register with the federal government of each nation on the earth the place they’ve customers and arrange workplaces in all these nations, which is the implication of the Federal Authorities’s demand? Conversely, Nigeria’s exterior broadcaster, the Voice of Nigeria, broadcasts its sign and content material to dozens of nations world wide and runs an internet site that’s accessible globally; is it registered and does it have workplaces in all of the nations the place its alerts are acquired as Nigeria is now demanding of platforms registered in different nations?”

Mr Longe described most of the provisions of the doc as arbitrary and draconian, saying the requirement that platforms take down “illegal content material” inside 24 hours after receiving a discover or grievance from any licensed authorities company constitutes an try by the federal government to regulate content material revealed on social media and different on-line platforms whereas bypassing the judicial course of and usurping the capabilities of the courts which ought to legitimately decide what content material that’s unlawful or illegal.

MRA, subsequently, rejected the “Code of Observe” in its totality. It known as on the federal government to desert it and strategy the Nationwide Meeting with an acceptable invoice if its real intention is to handle legit points fairly than violating the rights of Nigerians and different members of the general public on the pretext of defending them from pretend information and misinformation.