The Federal Government has issued a regulation to Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google, TikTok, and other companies on their operations in the country.
The rules, which are designed to monitor the operation of its social networking sites, state that every company operating in Nigeria must provide all of its data.
It must also assist any government agency with what it needs to investigate or deal with cybercrime or to file a criminal complaint.
The government also wants its affiliates to abide by Nigerian law and not to engage in any activities or modifications that would interfere with the country’s laws.
The new guidelines have been issued by the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), following a directive from President Muhammadu Buhari.
The government says any of its affiliated companies operating in the country must do the following:
1. Take immediate action in the event of a complaint from a user of the site or any government agency for any breach of the site.
The company must respond to a complaint and remove it from the site within 24 hours.
2. Promptly remove, block or block any sexually explicit material, nude, sexually explicit material, or pornographic videos, especially in cases of sexual harassment abuse or mistreat someone.
The company must respond to a complaint and remove it from the site within 24 hours.
3. State the name of the creator and publisher of the message if required by court order.
Especially if the directive applies to the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of offenses related to defamation of Nigeria, or peace or security or diplomatic relations, or to matters relating to child abuse and rape.
4. If the person who created the message is not in Nigeria, then the person who started the message in Nigeria will be considered as the original creator.
They must be vigilant to ensure that no illegal content is posted on their site.
If a company receives a message from a user or government agency that something illegal has been published, the company must remove the message altogether.
NITDA said the new rules, which have now been released to the public, were developed in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).
