Freedom of expression and the ban on Twitter by the Federal Government of Nigeria: criticism and consensus by the public/users

Aims and research questions : The aim of this study is to seek out the publics/users who expressed concern about this and interview them in order to expand our knowledge of their concerns as it infringes/affects human right to freedom of speech and expression, as such questions will, without doubt resurface with the next ban. Research questions: 1. For what purpose do Nigerian’s use Twitter? 2. What is the perception of the people on the Twitter ban in Nigeria and what is the people’s view on the effect of Twitter ban on freedom of expression in Nigeria?.

Sample

This study used focus group. The findings are based on three focus group discussion (FGD) (ranging from five to eight participants each) with experts, average Twitter users, and non users in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The FGDs were conducted in Port Harcourt, the State Capital of Rivers State and which is the second largest port of Nigeria. This discussions held in three communities which are Choba, Rumuokoro, and Rumuagholu. Each focus group discussion lasted one to two hours. Being resident in Port Harcourt for over two decades, combined with my years of research experience in the state, I used a snowballing method and purposely include a range of respondents from diverse social, economic, gender, ethnic, religious and geographic backgrounds. This increases my confidence that my findings are representative of a broader group of people than those I was able to interview as part of a focus group.

Main Findings

My findings show that Twitter plays a vital role in Nigeria and is seen as an important avenue for expression. Majority of the citizens rely on Twitter for information dissemination. It is one of the major sources of news. It was also discovered that majority of the people are critical and not supportive of the action of the government as their right to freedom of expression was curtailed by that ban. The right to freedom of speech and expression is a valid constitutional right not just in Nigeria but globally against oppression and discrimination to any human being. If one’s freedom of speech and expression is tampered with, it can affect other human right of the individual. Not allowing people to express themselves is equivalent to shutting them up in life. Twitter ban left a negative perception in the minds of the people. There is deteriorating human rights situation in the country. Based on this, my findings are consistent with previous research, Obiora & Onwughalu (2018) showed that under the present dispensation and administration, there is deteriorating human rights provisions. They further add that various reports by national and international human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, have continued to indict the government for wanton violations of human rights provisions. These bodies rated Nigeria low since 2015. Though individual differences on the ban are observed, the differences found can best be explained by the different perception of the action of the government by individual public/user. The effect of the ban if not checked may result in increased violence like the #Endsars protest in Nigeria due to several factors. Findings shows that whether used for positive content, negative content or mixed content, the use of Twitter is increasing rapidly as in other parts of the world.

Policy recommendations/implications

Policy makers should have guidelines for use of Twitter and make it open to the general public, such that statement’s that will be inciting the public for lawlessness will not be there, nor publicly abusing the government, showing acts of insubordination and abusing the freedom of expression. 2. The government needs a comprehensive plan to counter misinformation from online platforms. 3. Digital literacy campaign is encouraged. 4. Information that generate peace should be encouraged and those that will create crisis should be discouraged. 5. Freedom of speech should have guidelines. 6. Best code of conduct to be developed. 7. Every administration should embark on a fruitful journey of recognizing and appreciating the importance of freedom of expression and press freedom and knowing that any society that does not embrace this is bound to fail in many respects, especially protection of human right. 8. There should be clearly defined mechanism, policy, programmes and plans on the safety and protection of journalists as well as freedom of expression. 9. Privacy settings on Twitter should be simplified for users to understand and given more emphasis that will motivate usage. 10. Stakeholders (government, platform owners etc) should strengthen laws that protect users data to be enforced by regulators. 11. Public Information Officers should be open, ethical, responsible and accountable in handling information especially as it concerns the use of social media and freedom of expression. 12. Public Information Officers should show decorum, take caution, and refrain from all forms of social media abuses connected with the delivery of public information.