The Socio-Financial Rights and Accountability Challenge (SERAP) has appealed Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the Home of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas to instantly withdraw a controversial invoice in search of to amend the Nigeria Knowledge Safety Act 2023. The invoice, based on SERAP, would impose draconian restrictions on bloggers and social media platforms working inside Nigeria’s borders.
In a letter dated April 12, 2025, and signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the group known as on the Nationwide Meeting management to “instantly withdraw the repressive invoice for an act to amend the Nigeria Knowledge Safety Act, 2023,” which mandates that social media platforms and bloggers should set up bodily places of work inside Nigeria’s territorial boundaries or face punitive motion.
In keeping with SERAP, the invoice—titled “A Invoice for an Act to Amend the Nigeria Knowledge Safety Act, 2023, to Mandate the Institution of Bodily Places of work inside the Territorial Boundaries of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Social Media Platforms and for Associated Issues”—poses a grave risk to digital rights and freedoms within the nation.
The invoice, which has already handed its first and second readings within the Senate, proposes, amongst different issues, that bloggers should register native places of work and be part of acknowledged nationwide running a blog associations.
SERAP described the legislative transfer as an try and reintroduce the “extensively rejected” social media invoice by means of the again door. It argued that the invoice is inconsistent with Nigeria’s obligations beneath the 1999 Structure (as amended) and worldwide human rights treaties.
“If handed, the invoice would even be used to ban main social media platforms—together with Fb, X (previously Twitter), Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok, and impartial bloggers—in the event that they ‘repeatedly fail to determine/register and keep bodily places of work in Nigeria for a interval of 30 days,’” SERAP said.
The group warned that such laws may very well be exploited by authorities to censor dissenting voices and punish people and organizations for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and affiliation.
“Regulating the actions of bloggers and forcing them to affiliate would have a major chilling impact on freedom of expression and result in censorship or restraint. Lawmakers mustn’t change into arbiters of fact within the public and political area,” the letter learn.
Authorized Implications and Menace to Democracy
SERAP expressed considerations that the invoice may very well be weaponized to dam entry to social media platforms, hinder entry to data, and stifle essential discourse, notably towards the ruling authorities.
“This regulation might also be used as a pretext to power bloggers to reveal their sources, undermining the appropriate to guard journalistic sources—a cornerstone of press freedom,” the group mentioned.
The invoice, if handed, would additionally adversely have an effect on unregistered bloggers working inside Nigeria, inserting disproportionate limitations on people and teams—particularly journalists, civil society organizations, and human rights defenders—who could also be essential of presidency insurance policies.
“Obligatory regulation of journalism is incompatible with the appropriate to freedom of expression. There is no such thing as a reputable cause why bloggers—or actually members of most of the people—ought to be topic to necessary regulation or licensing to specific themselves,” SERAP added.
Enterprise, Know-how, and Financial Affect
Past the human rights implications, SERAP additionally highlighted the financial and operational disruptions the invoice may trigger. The requirement for worldwide tech firms to determine bodily places of work in Nigeria could result in mass exits from the nation’s digital area.
“Along with infringing on Nigerians’ proper to entry to data and digital expertise, the proposed invoice would severely hamper enterprise operations, as many firms are reliant on overseas instruments, companies, and platforms to function.”
The proposal, based on SERAP, fails to contemplate the borderless nature of digital communication and violates the precept that freedom of expression ought to be protected “no matter frontiers.”
SERAP Threatens Authorized Motion
SERAP emphasised that if the Nationwide Meeting proceeds with the invoice and it’s signed into legislation by President Bola Tinubu, the group wouldn’t hesitate to problem its legality in court docket.
“Ought to the Nationwide Meeting and its management fail to withdraw the invoice to manage the actions of bloggers, and may any such invoice be assented to by President Bola Tinubu, SERAP would take into account acceptable authorized motion to problem the legality of any such legislation and guarantee it’s by no means carried out within the public curiosity.”
The group concluded by reminding the Nationwide Meeting of its authorized obligations to make sure a protected and open atmosphere the place various opinions and concepts might be freely expressed and debated.
Citing the 2005 and 2011 Joint Declarations by particular rapporteurs on freedom of expression, SERAP reiterated that “[n]o one ought to be required to register with or receive permission from any public physique to function an Web service supplier, web site, weblog or different on-line data dissemination system, together with Web broadcasting.”
What You Ought to Know
The invoice seeks to amend the Nigerian Knowledge Safety Act 2023 by introducing stringent rules for bloggers and social media platforms. It requires bodily presence and official registration of social media platforms inside Nigeria. SERAP warns that the invoice may very well be used to stifle dissent, censor on-line expression, and violate elementary human rights. The invoice has handed its first and second readings within the Senate, awaiting additional legislative motion. SERAP has threatened authorized motion ought to the invoice be handed into legislation.
