By Gabriel Atumeyi
A Civil Society Organisation, Citizens Awareness Against Corruption And Social Vices Initiative (CAACASVI), has warned the federal government against the proposed regulation of social media.
The group said regulation and censorship of social media may infringe on citizens right to information and free expression.
365Daily recalls that the minister of Information, Lai Mohammed and northern governors had recently suggested the regulation of social media to curb fake news epidemic in the country in the light of the #EndSARS protest and its violent aftermath.
Executive Director of CAACASVI, Comrade Olumuyiwa Onlede, made this known in an interview with 365Daily over the weekend in Abuja.
He expressed fear that any attempt to regulate social media may have purnishous effect on even legitimate voices and aspirations.
Onlede said, “The proposal by the federal government to regulate the social media and the debate and different opinion that ensued afterward is something that is tropical and important so as for the government to feel the pulse of the citizens.
“But it is also significant that as a civil society organisation for us to lend our voice and to also align with the fact that it will be counterproductive to regulate social media just for the fact that some element within the social media space tend to abuse the use.
“First and foremost, the question is how do they intend to regulate the social media that it will not impede on the right and privileges of the legitimate users whose content do not represent fake news?
“How do they intend to regulate the social media in such a way that free flow of information will not be disrupted? These and many more are the question in the minds of citizens.
“It is a known fact that there are some elements that for selfish reasons deploy the social media as a tool for damages and division among the citizenry thereby using fakes news and content to cause tension within different interest groups and ethnic affiliation.
“But these few elements must not be used as a yardstick to generalise all users of social media in Nigeria for the government to now contemplate the regulation in such a way that will disenfranchise so many Nigerians whose source of information depend on social media.
“Social media regulation is something that is uncalled for and will be counterproductive both to the users and the integrity of the government,” he added.
Onlede enjoined the government to employ advance technologies and best practices if it hopes to checkmate and tackle the menacing phenomenon of fake news in the country.
“The government should borrow a leaf from other countries like China where injurious contents are checked by the government through the operators of social media platforms.”