AYO ESAN
THE International Press Centre, Lagos, has condemned the call for social media censorship by Northern States’ Governors, following a forum with Emirs and Chiefs on Monday in Kaduna.
The call for social media censorship was highlighted in Section 5 of the resolution of the meeting, which said, “The meeting took note of the devastating effect of the uncontrolled social media in spreading fake news, and therefore, calls for major control mechanism and censorship of the social media practice in Nigeria.”
Executive Director of IPC, Lanre Arogundade, however, said social media censorship would violate the rights guaranteed by the constitution, the right of free expression, the right to privacy, the right to know.
According to him, it will also violate press freedom.
Arogundade said, “It is important to note that there are existing laws to deal with unwholesome use of the internet, such as the Cyber Crime Act.
“Nigerians already rejected the social media bill before the Senate and it would be unacceptable to return it through the backdoor.”
