Lawyer seeks constitution amendment to regulate social media

A human rights lawyer, Hameed Jimoh, has called on the National Assembly to amend Section 39(3a) of the constitution to include the social media.  Earlier in the year, the National Council on Information (NCI) reportedly recommended the “setting up of a council to regulate the use of social media in Nigeria. Also, the 8th National […]

A human rights lawyer, Hameed Jimoh, has called on the National Assembly to amend Section 39(3a) of the constitution to include the social media. 

Earlier in the year, the National Council on Information (NCI) reportedly recommended the “setting up of a council to regulate the use of social media in Nigeria.

Also, the 8th National Assembly since inception has been mulling over the passage of a bill to regulate the social media through  “A Bill for an Act to Prohibit Frivolous Petitions.”

The bill states in part: “Where any person through text message, tweets, WhatsApp or through any social media posts any abusive statement knowing same to be false with intent to set the public against any person and group of persons, an institution of government or such other bodies established by law shall be guilty of an offence and upon conviction, shall be liable to an imprisonment for two years or a fine of N2,000,000 or both fine and imprisonment.”

The lawyer said the amendment is necessary because the trend in social media is more than in any of the media covered by Section 39(3a) with no law prohibiting the excesses yet. 

He said a close study of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015, Penal Codes and Criminal Codes showed that they are not enough and are not all encompassing in regulating social media.

Hameed added that from the provisions of Section 45(1) of the Constitution and the proviso to section 39(2) of the Constitution, government can and should “make a legislation to regulate social media and its users by any law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society, though, such law that will not violate human rights of Nigerian citizens.”