The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Bola Tinubu to order the Department of State Services (DSS) to withdraw its threat to ban X (formerly Twitter) in Nigeria over a tweet by activist, Omoyele Sowore, warning that any move in that direction would face legal challenge.
In a statement today, SERAP described the DSS threat as “collective punishment and a crackdown on access to social media” that would have “a chilling effect on the exercise of Nigerians’ rights to freedom of expression, media freedom, and access to information online.”
“The threat by the DSS seems to be a replay of the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria by the administration of former president Muhammadu Buhari,” the group said. “The ECOWAS Court then declared unlawful the suspension of Twitter by the Buhari administration and ordered the administration never to repeat it again.”
SERAP noted that the ECOWAS Court of Justice has held that access to Twitter is a fundamental human right. It stressed that freedom of expression, protected under section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, cannot be curtailed by “repressive and non-human rights compliant laws.”
“Any restriction of the right to freedom of expression online and offline must adhere to the constitutional and international requirements of legality, necessity, proportionality, and legitimacy,” SERAP said.
The group cited the UN Human Rights Committee’s General Comment No. 34, which states that all public figures are “legitimately subject to criticism and political opposition.”
It urged Nigerian authorities to “take steps to protect the important function of independent media online and offline to ensure free communication of information and ideas between citizens and elected representatives.”
Calling on the DSS to stop pressuring X to censor online content, SERAP warned: “We’ll see the administration in court if the threat is not immediately withdrawn.”
