The Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN) has joined
the campaign against plans by the Senate to gag the social media
saying such decision will increase cybercrime in the country.
CSEAN President, Remi Afon condemned in totality the proposed bill
entitled “An Act to prohibit frivolous petitions and other matters
connected therewith,” otherwise known as Social Media Bill.
The bill, based on its implementation process if passed, is meant to
punish those found guilty with two years imprisonment or fine.
According to Afon, the bill is retrogressive, baseless, unrealistic,
and has the propensity of increasing cyber related delinquencies in
the nation.
He spoke during a briefing Friday in Abuja, stressing that, “social
media is an ardent tool to expose and fight against oppression,
corruption, injustice, and lends voice to the voiceless. The rise of
social media has shown that the Internet is truly a democratic medium
where people can make their opinions known; no new law is needed in
Nigeria to deal with social media misuse as the existing law coupled
with the cyber crime law deal effectively with false allegations,
libel and related offences.
“All that is needed now is a better understanding of the existing law
as it is applicable to offences committed on the internet.”
Afon emphasised that the proposed bill is tantamount to a backdoor
attempt to clamp down on free speech as enriched in Section 39(1) of
the 1999 constitution of the nation and as guaranteed by Article 19 of
the United Nations universal declaration on human rights.
“Internet has no borders; the proposed bill if passed into law will
create more damage than good in that people will begin to engage in
identity theft, create bogus social media accounts and use proxies to
remain anonymous in order to air their views which in effect will
increase cyber crime. At this stage when all hands should be on deck
to track down cyber criminals who often use anonymous accounts and
malicious proxies, it will be bad to push bloggers, twitter, facebook
and other social media users into the dark world of internet. Rather,
the law enforcement agencies should be empowered to take down
offensive posts and track down cyber criminals by way of capacity
building,” he added.
However, he urged the government to create more awareness on cyber
security and further promote technology in the country.
He said it became imperative to reduce all forms of atrocities on the
internet and ensure internet security.
CSEAN therefore called on the lawmakers to urgently kill the bill.
