Senate mulls law to regulate social media

Applications. Photo: Marketing land

By Femi Adekoya

Abdulfatai Buhari, chairman Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime has said that the National Assembly will make law to regulate what Nigerians do on social media. Senator Buhari, who disclosed this at the sidelines of the 2018 Cybersecurity Conference in Abuja, said social media should be regulated because many Nigerians are misusing it.
If left unregulated, he said, the activities on social media are capable of setting the country on fire, especially as the country approaches national election
He said: “We have got experts to advise us and we have presented a bill to the senate. The bill has passed the first reading and it has been listed for the second reading.’’
He said a lot of Nigerians made false claims and false accusations on social media to bring down those perceived to be their political enemies.
According to him, youths should use their ICT talent to develop the country’s economy and not use it to attack one another.
Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications said his ministry would work with the Office of National Security Adviser and the National Assembly to reinforce or build international norms to regulate adverse state behaviour, “and we will continue to partner with NASS and ONSA to impose sanctions on those that undermine our interests and global security on the cyberspace.”
He added: “We will continue to partner with ONSA to build capacity to benefit from the internet, to secure it, and to engage with international rule-making. The cyber ecosystem has been weaponised and manipulated to devastating effect to undermine democratic processes, influence voting in elections and whip up tension and divisions between and among societal groups.’’
He said the ministry is collaborating with the National Identity Management Commission on the strategic roadmap for ID ecosystem for Nigeria: handling the entire cybersecurity component of the ecosystem and in particular the Personal Identifiable Information.
The ministry, in conjunction, will soon conduct a cybersecurity assessment of the ID ecosystem, he added.