Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) and Media Rights Agenda (MRA) have called on stakeholders to review the draft code of practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries and conditions for operating in the country.
The draft code of practice, released by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on 13 June, 2022, aims to create guidelines for interacting within the digital ecosystem, especially on social media platforms.
NITDA’s Head of Corporate Affairs and External Relationship, Hadiza Umar, in a press release, said the code of practice was drafted on the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari.
But PIN said that the draft code of practice was a potential ‘tool for the abuse’ of constitutionally guaranteed rights of Nigerians.
‘The code of practice and its impending implementation goes to the essence of digital rights and freedom for all, and we are aware of the dangers inherent in the closing of digital civic space in Nigeria’, PIN said in a statement.
‘This is why we have been working with others to push back on this trajectory in Africa to ensure human rights considerations are taken into account in the development and implementation of digital policies’.
Also, MRA described the draft code of practice as a ‘clumsy attempt’ to usurp the powers, functions and authority of the National Assembly as well as a breach of the constitutional rights of Nigerians.
‘The federal government is clearly attempting to circumvent the legislative process in favour of a backdoor approach to regulate social media and other internet platforms’, MRA’s Programme Director, Ayode Longe, said in a statement to Development Diaries.
‘It is curious that the government has chosen to use an administrative document to surreptitiously create criminal offences as the document states unequivocally that any platform or internet intermediary responsible for violating its provisions will be liable to prosecution and conviction.
‘The name is problematic. Although it is termed a code of practice, it is in fact not intended to provide guidance for the implementation of any specific law or regulation. Rather, it creates criminal offences which are not contained in any existing law and attempts to legitimise them by a vague reference to its enabling Act and other laws, which is beyond the remit of any such administrative document’.
MRA insisted that the document is a breach of Articles 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Nigeria’s treaty obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Photo source: Erik (HASH) Hersman
