Nigeria’s Legislature Wants To Ban Internet Porn

All eyes looked towards Aso Rock and the 37
ministers being sworn in (finally), the lower
house of the Nigerian parliament passed
through a resolution to, essentially, censor social
media. The naughty bits at least. A news item on the
National Assembly website reads:
“The House has prevailed upon the telecommunications
service providers to either develop or acquire software
that will block or filter-out certain images or contents
that violate both moral and religious values in Nigeria.
Passing a resolution on a motion moved by Hon.
Johnbull Shekarau calling for the censoring of social
media, he prayed the House to urge the telecoms
service providers to initiate a take-down procedure that
will enable a swift removal of any pornographic
materials when notified by network users. He advised
that this could be done by dedicating a hotline that will
receive and treat complaints.”
Nigeria has never shied away from using the Cannon
and Mosquito approach to solving our perceived issues.
And what we do not understand or cannot fix, we ban
or censor. The report continues:
“The House, however subscribed… that not censoring
inappropriate and illicit material like pornography,
sexual and homosexual ones on platforms such as
YouTube, Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter etc is a threat
to the moral values and decency of the Nigerian
society.”
A solution to what the Honourable Shekarau proposed
already exists, the report button. Social media
platforms have well-established mechanisms in place
through which users can report content they find
offensive. The platform investigates and removes the
content if they deem it improper. This detail, along with
the absurdity of setting up a “hotline”- to receive
offline complaints about online content- shows that
the House doesn’t understand the nuances of the
problem it has chosen to take on. The telcos do not
own these platforms and will still resort to existing
reporting channels.
Also, in placing the Nigerian Communication
Commission (NCC) in the role of a censor board – the
body has been asked to “create significant barriers” to
the misuse of all things mobile – the House continues
to show how clueless they are .
By censoring content, the government will be- by
extension- censoring users and free speech. We should
be free to look at or share whatever we desire, even if
it hurts Hon. Shekarau’s sensibilities. Morality and
decency has always been down to individual choices
and can’t be legislated into our lives. They are noble
standards but censorship cannot serve as a go-to
protection for them.
This resolution may die on the floor of the lower
parliament as many others have. Or it may be passed
into law when we least expect it. We do not yet know
what form the proposed software will take (one thing
we have in common with the House) but we need to be
vigilant that the first line of code is not written at all.
Free speech, even if it may seem tenuous at times in
Nigeria, has to be protected.