A new bill that aims to regulate social media in Nigeria has been submitted to the National Assembly by the government of Bola Tinubu. The bill is titled “National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) act, CAP L11 laws of the federation of Nigeria 2004 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2023”.
The bill proposes to overhaul the existing NBC act to accommodate the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting service, promote quality audio and video, efficient management of the spectrum, Nigeria Broadcast Institute, and social media regulation.
The bill also seeks to empower the NBC to monitor and sanction any social media platform that is deemed to be in breach of the national security, public order, public morality, or public health.
This was disclosed by Balarabe Ilelah, the director-general of NBC, when he hosted Mohammed Idris, the minister of information and national orientation, at the commission’s headquarters on Tuesday.
Ilelah described the ills of social media as a “monster” that needs to be tamed by law. He said the current act does not give the NBC the right to regulate social media.
“We have already submitted a bill to amend the act. One of our major problems now is social media. Unless there is a law that allows NBC to act on social media issues, the issue will continue to be a monster in our daily lives in this country,” he said.
He also said that the commission has the power to sanction any broadcaster that violates the act establishing NBC, but added that the commission prefers to negotiate and educate rather than punish.
“We have powers, we derive our powers from the act, and we have the powers to sanction stations. We don’t want to sanction, we prefer to bring them together for negotiation, for understanding,” he said.
He revealed that in 2023, a total of 1,238 warnings were given, while six different stations were penalised.
The information minister commended the NBC for its efforts and urged it to work with the media so they do not see the commission as “punitive”.