Next to Egypt, Liberia, Nigeria is cracking down on social media users

Kings UBA

5 years ago

Government of Nigeria has said it is going after social media users who use to platform to criticise the government. Nigerians are among the most active users of the social media in Africa, particularly the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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In Egypt, social media users who have followers numbering from 5000 above are considered a threat to the government of Abdulfataah Al-sisi and they put under strict monitoring.

Last week thousands took to the streets of Liberia to protest “corruption and creeping dictatorship” in the country, the government, led by President George Weah, a football star and 1995 FIFA Player of the Year, responded by blocking social media platforms.

Internet monitoring platform NetBlocks reports that “Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and messaging app WhatsApp have been blocked by internet providers in Liberia as of Friday 7 June 2019” following what citizens have termed Save the State protests.

“Liberia’s leading wireless internet provider Lonestar (AS37410) has restricted access to social media as well as Google’s Gmail service and news agency AP News, which covered this morning’s events and censorship during the Save the State protests in Monrovia” NetBlocks added.

Liberia’s Minister of Information Eugene Nagbe, according to CNN, said the shutdown was because of “security concerns.”

“We have restored some of them. We are not saying that the protesters were carrying out things detrimental to the nation, but the national security apparatus said there were threats to the country and the services were temporarily disrupted and have been restored,” Nagbe added.

The protests were organised by Council of Patriots, a conglomeration of citizens, civil society activists, youth workers and major political parties.

They said they’re protesting “harsh economic conditions being caused … and encouraged by bad governance, deliberate and wanton collapse of integrity systems…. We have come to say no to bad governance, abuse of power, corruption and creeping dictatorship,” according to Henry Costa, one of the leaders of the protesters.

Nagbe, in defence of the government, said that Weah inherited a “dire economic situation,” and accused the country’s opposition of driving the protests. Mr. President is working to restore some of the issues that he inherited. The opposition is now using the streets to get what they didn’t get at the ballot box.”

The Nigerian State Security Service on Wednesday June 12, announced a nationwide crackdown on individuals allegedly caught posting inciting materials on the Internet, in a move that could provoke fresh debates about the potency of Nigerian Constitution’s free speech safeguards.

The SSS said it had recently observed that some social media users were skewing Nigeria’s history to promote ethnic violence and tip the nation into crisis, a development it said must be urgently reversed through state interference.

The secret police’s spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, said in a statement that some “unpatriotic” Nigerians have been using social media platforms to make “unguarded public statements and/or use the social media platforms to instill fear in the minds of citizens”.

“These are reflected in the misleading statements and articles being circulated among unsuspecting members of the public. Such inciting materials oftentimes are designed to make or convey false accusations by one group against the other.

“They also resort to skewing historical narratives to suit their objective of masterminding ethnic violence in the nation. So far, some of the culprits have been arrested,” Mr Afunanya said.

The SSS said it was “determined to ensure that the tribal chauvinists and mischief makers do not continue to exploit socio-political differences and Internet platforms to threaten the peace and stability of the country.”

The service said regional and community elders should not only desist from making “unguarded statements” but also help shut down all ethnically-charged rhetoric by persons in their respective domains.

The SSS vowed to “sustain the apprehension and prosecution of defaulters,” because it would not relent in its quest to prevent crimes and keep Nigeria as an indivisible country.

Afunanya told PREMIUM TIMES in a follow-up conversation that he would make available the identities of those arrested and from which parts of the country.

While it may generate outrage for the manner it was executed, the crackdown did not come in isolation or as a surprise to Internet and free speech advocates.

The Nigerian government has invested heavily in tracking tools to keep social media users in check, even though the practise remained largely non-transparent and constitutionally problematic.

“It is a development that does does not come as a surprise,” Adeboye Adegoke, an Internet rights expert with Paradigm Initiative, told PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday morning. “The foundation for this was laid in the past three-two five years with investments in monitoring and policing speech by the Nigerian government.”

Mr Adegoke described the SSS’ action as scary and aimed at fostering an atmosphere of fear amongst Nigerians online.

“What we are seeing is a scary dive dive into a climate of fear, a chilling effect in which case citizen will have to think twice before sharing opinion especially those opinions that do not paint the incumbent in good light.”

The analyst said the government has exploited its monopoly over national security to assume a controversial position as the arbiter of patriotism and seditious acts.

“The Constitution is clear on the rights of citizens to express opinions. The government does not have to like such opinions,” Mr Adegoke said.

The expert said the SSS should promptly publish details of the arrests, but Nigerians should not wait before condemning repressive acts that erode civil liberties.

“The country is gradually becoming a place where speech is being policed and everyone who cares about civil liberty should not only be worried but resist attempts by the state to cow citizens into submission to state-defined ‘patriotism’ or ‘hate speech.”