“#NoToSocialMediaBill” _SERAP

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has threatened to sue the Northern Governors’ Forum and the National Assembly if the social media bill is passed.

This was disclosed in a tweet on Tuesday while reacting to the call by the northern governors for more social media regulations in the wake of the #EndSARS protests.

“We’ll sue the Northern Governors’ Forum and @nassnigeria if any Social Media bill is passed and signed by President Buhari. Nigerians have a right to freedom of expression online. We won’t accept any illegal attempts to interfere with that right #NoToSocialMediaBill,” the human rights group tweeted.

The northern governor’s had on Monday after a meeting with northern traditional and political leaders called for censorship and control of the social media.

Their decision was contained in a communique read by the Chairman of the forum who is the Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong.

The northern governors lamented over what they described as the devastating effect of uncontrolled social media in spreading of fake news and inciting crisis as in the recent EndSARS protest.

The Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill, popularly known as the Social Media Bill was sponsored in 2019 by Senator Sani Musa.