#Signthepetition trends on Twitter as Nigerians campaign against social media bill

 

Nigerians have taken to Twitter to campaign against the social media bill which recently scaled its second reading on the floor of the Nigerian Senate.

 According to EiE Nigeria, the social media bill is a replication of Singapore's Protection from online falsehoods and manipulation act. Media personality, Ebuka who reacted to the tweet stated that Singapore is a scary benchmark to use for such.

If passed into law, the social media bill will empower the Nigerian government to unilaterally order the shutdown of the internet. An internet service provider that refuses to obey the order on conviction by a court may be fined N10 million for each day the order is not obeyed.

 Another section of the bill prescribes a fine of ? 300,000 or three-year jail term or both for anyone found guilty of making statements that “diminish public confidence in the performance of any duty or function, or in the exercise of any power of the Government.” Critics said the bill is designed to clamp down on freedom of speech.

 Some Nigerian celebrities have also joined in the campaign against the bill and here are some tweets below;  

The campaign against the social media bill has a target of 7,500 signatures and over 6,800 people have signed the petition so far.