Decoding Digital Authoritarianism: Nigeria’s Social Media Bill and the Future of Regulatory Freedoms
Mots-clés :
African Charter, Constitutional Law, Digital Regulation, Freedom of Expression, Nigeria, Social Media BillRésumé
Social media has transformed communication in Nigeria, creating optimism and peril. In an attempt to respond to apprehensions regarding online "falsehoods," Nigeria's legislature introduced the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill, 2019 (the social media bill). The bill is examined in this article from a legal and human rights standpoint. Using doctrinal legal analysis, we map the bill's provisions onto the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and Nigeria's international obligations under the ICCPR and the African Charter. Our analysis demonstrates that the bill's broad prohibitions on "false statements," the draconian sanctions, and the expansive blocking powers fall far outside constitutional and international limitations on regulating speech. Some of the key provisions criminalizing vague categories of speech and allowing shutdowns and coercive "correctives" by police risk violating fundamental rights in Section 39 of the Constitution and Article 19 of the ICCPR, and Article 9 of the African Charter. Rights groups and civil society groups have all condemned the bill as intolerant; they have mounted petitions and court challenges arguing that it would stifle free expression. We conclude that the social media bill, if enacted, would chill online speech and very likely violate Nigeria's international legal commitments. We call on Nigeria to table or substantially cut back this project, pursuing instead open, due‐process–based approaches and preventative strategies (e.g., media literacy, voluntary codes) deferential to constitutional safeguards.
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© Abubakar Muhammad Jibril, Hoda Gueddi and Halima Auwal Hussain 2025
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