Senate Plots Speedy Passage For Social Media Regulation Bill, Passes Second Reading

A bill seeking to regulate social media has passed second reading at the senate.

The bill entitled, ‘Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation 2019’, passed second reading after Sani Musa, senator representing Niger east and its sponsor, moved a motion for a debate on the proposed law.

The proposed legislation was widely criticised following its introduction to the upper legislative chamber two weeks ago.

The second stage of the new bill was passed after lawmakers debated details of the bill during plenary.

Leading the debate, Mr Musa said the bill does not intend to gag the media but to check the spread of false information on the internet.

He also prescribed up to N300,000 fine for an individual if found guilty; and up to N10 million for corporate organisations.

While three lawmakers supported the bill, Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu East) opposed the passage of the bill.

He said the bill was completely unnecessary given the provisions of the Cyber Crimes Act.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, then put the debate to a voice vote. Majority of the senators supported it.

Mr Lawan referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Judiciary. The committee was asked to report back after four weeks.