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The recently released Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries and Conditions for Operating in Nigeria will provide opportunity to protect the fundamental human rights of Nigerians and non-Nigerians living in the country, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has reiterated.
RELATED: NITDA issues Code of Practice for online platforms operating in Nigeria
Pantami who was speaking at Nigeria’s first Content Moderation and Online Safety Summit organised by the Advocacy for Policy and Innovation (API) said the guidelines will define online interaction in a healthier manner. The theme of the gathering in Abuja was: “The Challenge for Content Moderation and the Opportunity to Improve Online Safety in Nigeria.”
Represented at the event by the Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the minister said the value of ensuring a safer platform for online users remain critical to driving the digital economy.
According to him, abuse of content has remained worrisome to global stakeholders. President Joe Biden recently requested Facebook to moderate ‘dis-misinformation’ on its platform, and Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has petitioned the House to request Facebook and Twitter to take-down videos of her ripping the SOTU speech.
The Minister mentioned the great American patriot Benjamin Franklin’s response when asked upon his emergence from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 “What form of government the United States was going to have. Franklin answered succinctly, a Republic if you can keep it”.
Pantami clarified that Franklin’s response came 70 years before the emergence of the Republican Party, which means that he was referring to the true meaning of the word “Republic”.
He elaborated that the new democratic republic is not just a new form of government but a government that needs vigilance and actions to protect and maintain it.
Essentially, in a democracy, he stated, there are three key things to the development of every individual these are, Power, Freedom, and Justice. In the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we shouldn’t allow anyone have unaccountable power over others.
“Today looking at the social media incidence before the US election, indicated that Big Tech has more power than the Government. Users are compelled to obey the Big Tech rules because of the restrictions and sanctions in its usage. For example, if you use Twitter there is a limit to the words you can tweet,” he said.
]He emphasized that in a democratic setting citizens should have representatives elected by people to write rules rather than a few.
His words: “This causes challenges such as the recruitment system being gender biased, or the recognition system being racist, and so on.”
“While we need modern software engineers, there is also the need for social engineers to control our social justice. The summit, therefore, is timely and is expected to prompt lead ways to protecting the ungoverned online space.
“From the period of John Ballos declaration in 1996, which explains how he predicted a new cyber world without government, to Eric Smith’s comment that cyberspace is an ungoverned space; to 2018 when Mark Zuckerberg said that the real question is neither if there is need for regulation or not, but what is the appropriate regulation?”
In his welcome remarks, the Director Advocacy for Policy and Innovation (API), Barrister Kasim Sodangi, outlined the harmful ways the internet is affecting people’s lives.
He said, “we are at a crossroads due to the abuse of freedom given by the internet. In rhetoric he asked, do we regulate and clampdown? Do we educate more? What are the tools needed to educate people? How do we properly tackle misinformation and disinformation? These questions leave us to ponder because as a shared resource, the internet is meant to be enhanced and not restricted, so we are left to consider how we can effectively maximize its general usage.”
Julie Owono, the Execuitve Director of Internet Sans Frontiers (Internet Without Borders) and the Executive Director of Content Policy & Society Lab at Stanford University, opined that to have stability for a whole society and safety of online spaces, stakeholders must come together.
She said, “The government bodies and agencies must create laws, guidelines, and online content regulations as well as partner with private technology companies, civil society organizations, citizens, and academia.”
Owono stated that the need for transparency is paramount in online spaces.
