Social media bill will protect human dignity- Sen. Musa – TheNigerialawyer

Sen. Mohammed Musa (APC- Niger), has urged Nigerians to support
the social media bill before the National Assembly because it was
aimed at protecting human dignity.

Musa said this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

He said the bill, when assented to, would protect human dignity
among many other inherent gains.

The Senate had on Nov 5, re-introduced the ‘Protection from
Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill 2019’, to regulate the
use of social media in the country.

The bill, which was sponsored by Sen. Musa, was aimed at curbing
fake news on the internet and to guide social media users.

“The social media bill comes with enormous gains such as a free
internet that guarantees national security; protects minors from
abusive forms of marketing, violence, and pornography.

“The bill, when assented to, will protect human dignity from
incitement to racial hatred or racial discrimination.

”It will provide economic security and curb fraud, as well as
provide instructions on pirating credit cards.

“It will also provide security, protect privacy from
unauthorised communication of personal data, electronic harassment;
protection of reputation and intellectual property as propounded by
the European Union Paper on illegal and harmful content on the
internet,’’ he said.

The lawmaker said that although, Nigerians might be afraid that
the law could be manipulated by politicians and government
officials, it was not enough to negate the overall gains of the
regulation.

He urged Nigerians to support the voyage, reiterating that it
would guarantee sanity, protect rights and sensitivities on the
internet.

He, however, faulted claim that the bill which had similarities
with a Singaporean Statue subject was plagiarised.

According to him, it is preposterous that this is said to be an
instance of plagiarism.

The lawmaker said that legislations across the globe are public
documents and national legislatures do not claim right over them,
as to form the basis for a claim for plagiarism over their
effectiveness.

He said that the problems and challenges of regulating internet
activities cuts across jurisdictions and was therefore inevitable
that lessons should be drawn from other jurisdictions in fashioning
out workable solutions in Nigeria.

He urged the general public not to heed to the immature attempt
by uninformed mischief makers who were trying to distort the
progress of the bill.

Musa said the law when enacted, would become a universal
template that could be adopted and domesticated to fit
peculiarities.

“Beyond the public speaking, the internet space in Nigeria has
become corrosive. Information whether true or false spreads like
wildfire.

“We may have the capacity to regulate the internet space but it
is extremely difficult to regulate the effect of hate speech
distributed through online platforms.

“We need a more standardised approach and this is the crux of
the move to sanitise the corrosive internet space in Nigeria,” he
said.

(NAN)