Inspired by China’s Example, Nigeria’s Information Minister Wants to Regulate Social Media

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, sparked widespread outrage on Tuesday when he called for the government to step in and begin to censor online content. “If we don’t regulate social media, it will destroy us,” he told a House committee. “The biggest challenge facing Nigeria today is fake news and misinformation,” Minister Mohammed told legislators.

In his testimony, the minister used China as an example of a country that successfully regulates social media and other online content. But it’s not entirely clear how familiar he is with China’s all-encompassing control of digital media and the lengths Beijing goes to remove all content the government deems objectionable.

Minister Mohammed’s suggestion of enhancing the government’s control of the internet comes amid the worst social instability in Nigeria in years following a week of protests against police brutality.

But while the government may try to take advantage of the current crisis to get legislation passed that would grant it the authority to censor social media, it’s also important to remember that factions aligned with the Buhari administration have been lobbying for this kind of legislation for quite some time.

Last November, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa introduced what’s been dubbed as the “Anti-Social Media Bill” that was enthusiastically endorsed by First Lady Aisha Buhari. “If China can control over 1.3 billion people on social media, I see no reason why Nigeria cannot attempt controlling only 180 million people,” she said.

Senator Musa’s bill didn’t go very far and, based on the initial reaction from House members, it looks like Minister Mohammed’s suggestion will face a similar fate. Representatives including Emmanuel Oghene were not impressed with the comparison to China. “China is not a good example because it is a communist country,” Oghene told the minister. “Nigeria has always been free, we are a democratic country.”

COMMENTARY: China was among the first major countries to challenge the U.S./European principle of an open, unfettered internet, when it introduced the concept of “internet sovereignty.” The idea here is that within a nation’s borders, a country has a sovereign right to manage internet activity. While at first, this notion was roundly dismissed by U.S. and European stakeholders (remember when President Bill Clinton said China’s efforts to control the internet would be like “nailing Jell-O to the wall“?),  “internet sovereignty” is now established policy in a growing number of mostly non-democratic states around the world. And, as we’ve seen in Nigeria, there are growing calls for similar measures to be introduced in a number of African countries as well.

SUGGESTED READING:

• Punch: #EndSARS: We must regulate social media before it destroys us –FG by Leke Baiyewu
• This Day: Lai Mohammed Calls for Regulation of Social Media by Udora Orizu

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The post Inspired by China’s Example, Nigeria’s Information Minister Wants to Regulate Social Media appeared first on The China Africa Project.

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