The Nigerian Senate has reintroduced a bill seeking to
regulate social media in the country. This comes days after the Minister of
Information, Lai Mohammed, annnounced plans by the Federal government to
sanitize social media.
The bill entitled,
‘'Protection from internet falsehood and manipulations bill, 2019'’ which is
being sponsored by Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, passed the first reading
yesterday November 5th.
Musa who spoke to
journalists after tendering the bill before the lawmakers, said the bill
proposes a fine of N150, 000 or three years imprisonment for any individual
caught spreading fake information on any social media platform.
“There has never been
a time when Nigeria has been very fragile in terms of its unity than this
period. It is not to stop people from going into the internet to do whatever
they feel legitimately is okay to do but what we felt is wrong is for you to
use the medium to document information that you know is false, just because you
want to achieve your desirable interest'' he said
Musa added that if
any corporate organization is found to be guilty of peddling false informtion
online, they would be fined N5 million.
“If it is a corporate
organisation that refused to block that false information despite the fact that
they have been alerted by authorities not to disseminate that information for
public interest and they still go ahead and do it, refusing to do that blockage
will be penalised between N5 million to N10 million for those organisations.
For example, MTN, Glo, 9 mobile etc. which we use their
platform in transmitting these information, if nothing is done, we fine them
and you will see that it will be a deterrent to others.” he said
The Eight senate proposed such a bill but it was dismissed
after much outcry from Nigerians.
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