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#SayNoToSocialMediaBill: Twitter users call for death sentence for failed campaign promises

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Nigerians on social media are raising their voices against a Bill for an Act to Make Provisions for the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation and for related matters 2019 which passed second reading at the Senate this week.

Some social media users claim the bill would clampdown on freedom of speech and would wage war against critics of government.

The Bill was sponsored by Senator Musa Sani (APC-Niger east).

While presenting the lead debate on the bill during Tuesday’s plenary, Sani said the bill was a 36-clause legislative proposal to provide for the prevention of broadcast of falsehood and manipulative contents using the internet and its intermediaries for transmission.

“It prescribes sanctions to offenders with a view to deterrence and the penalty for defaulters ranges from fine of up to N300, 000.”

Sani added that the bill also provided for the issuance of regulations dealing with the transmission of false statements of facts in Nigeria upon declaration.

Some Senators from the ruling APC and opposition PDP have thrown their weight behind the bill.

Two opposition Senators who have shown full support for the bill are Abba Moro (Benue South) and Elisha Abbo (Adamawa).

Coincidentally, these two lawmakers have, at different times, been at the receiving end of social media wrath over their past actions.

Moro incurred the wrath of social media users in 2014 with the ill-fated Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment test that turned tragic across the nation claiming about 20 lives with several other applicants injured.

He was Interior Minister at that time and his ministry supervised the test which turned tragic. This made him a subject of internet trolling for several months.

Moro and some former top officials in the Interior Ministry were also dragged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly mismanaging N676 million being funds generated from the sale of the NIS recruitment form.

Abbo, on the other side, sparked an uproar on social media earlier this year when a video showing him assaulting a woman at an adult sex shop in Abuja went viral on the internet.

He is presently standing trial before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.

When the names of the two opposition Senators popped up as some of the supporters of the bill, social media users became more enraged that it is likely an attempt by the two lawmakers who fight back and gag the platform after they had both been on the wrong side of social media advocacy.

Senator Chimaroke Nnamani (PDP- Enugu East), however, opposed the bill, saying “In principle, I not only oppose the bill, I condemn it in its entirety.

“Section 39(1) of the Constitution that guarantees freedom of information and speech, there is a cybercrime act that deals with this issue and there are also laws that have to deal with false information; libel, slander.”

Tweeting with the hashtags #NoTOSocialMediaBill and #NoToHateSpeechBill, Nigerians took to Twitter on Friday to call for the withdrawal of the bill.

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A social media suggested that if the Senate proceeds with the bill, then it would also be good if it promotes a bill proposing death sentence for politicians who fail to fulfill their campaign promises.

He tweeted:

Ifok David tweeted:

Another user wrote:

 

 

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