The Cyber Security Experts Association of
Nigeria (CSEAN) has sounded a note of caution over the Nigerian Senate attempt to
muzzle the social media, saying it would give rise to cybercrime and urged
Senate to kill the bill as matter of urgency, reports ITRealms.
CSEAN national president, Mr. Remi Afon in
a press statement made available to ITRealms said that the group condemned in
totality the proposed bill entitled “An Act to prohibit frivolous petitions and
other matters connected therewith” otherwise known as “Social Media Bill” which
is meant to punish those found guilty with imprisonment or fine.
He described the bill as “retrogressive,
baseless, unrealistic, and has the propensity of increasing cyber crime in
Nigeria.”
Pointing out that social media is an ardent
tool to expose and fight against oppression, corruption, injustice, and lends
voice to the voiceless.
Afon also said that the rise of social
media has shown that the Internet is truly a democratic medium where people
could make their opinions known, insisting that no new law is needed in Nigeria
to deal with social media misuse, if any, as the existing law coupled with the
cyber crime law deal effectively with false allegations, libel and related
offences.
“All that is needed is a better
understanding of the existing law as it is applicable to offences committed on
the internet. 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
Nigeria and as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations universal
declaration on human rights,” Afon said.
He further said that Internet has no
borders, thus, the proposed bill if passed into law would create more damage
than good in that people would 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 online
anonymous proxies, it will be bad to push bloggers, Twitter, Facebook and other
social media users into the dark world of internet,” he decried, suggesting
that rather, the law enforcement agencies should be empowered to take down
offensive posts and track down cyber criminals by way of capacity building.
CSEAN, Afon said, called on lawmakers to
kill the bill as a matter of urgency.
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