Abuse of Social Media: A Call for Caution

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Social media is a term used to collectively describe a set of tools that foster interaction, discussion and community, allowing people to build relationships and share information. Media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication. It is easy to confuse social media with social news because we often refer to members of the news as "the media." Adding to the mix is the fact that a social news site is also a social media site because it falls into that broader category.

Meanwhile social news is not the same thing as social media anymore than a banana is the same thing as fruit. A banana is a type of fruit, but fruit can also be grapes, pineapples, or lemons. And while social news is social media, social networking and wikis are also social media. Few of such examples are Blogs (posting articles), Facebook, LinkedIn (networking), Twitter (networking), YouTube, Flickr (photos & video) to mention a view.

Think of abuse, for some reasons politicians come to mind. They are one breed which has brutally been punished by social media. Mudslinging has got a new medium, and people are venting all their wrath and anger by blasting off tweet after tweet, mocking every aspect of these servants of society.

In a related development, internet abuse involves the use of the internet in an abusive manner. It consists of threats and harassment, viruses, spamming, port scanning, hacking, denial-of-service attack (DoS attack), and copyright infringement. One may argue that there must be some measures expected to be put in place by the government to check the abuse of use of social media, but it is also imperative to note that the privacy of the users is also important especially those involved with decent and other activities that are not nefarious. What a dilemma?

Recently the House of Representatives, detailed its committees on Information Communication Technology, Justice and Anti-corruption to investigate the alleged award of over $ 40 million internet spying contract to a foreign company to monitor computers and internet activities of over 45 millions Nigerians on the web by the Federal Government. To this end, the House urged the Federal Government to suspend all action with regards to the contract pending the outcome of its investigations.

The House resolution was sequel to a motion of urgent public importance raised by Honourable Ibrahim Gusau, entitled: “A motion for the need to investigate the alleged over $40 million surveillance contract awarded by Federal Government to a foreign firm.” The mover of the motion equally maintained that reports had it that the contract was awarded secretly and in wanton disregard of due process, fiscal responsibility act, and Bureau of Public Procurement Act 2007.

According to him, “the award of the contract has violated the basic privacy provision in Chapter 4, Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. The contract under the guise of intelligence gathering and national security may not be the answer to the glaring security challenges of today’s Nigeria.” He noted that if the alleged contract was allowed the right to private and family life enshrined in the 1999 Constitution as amended would have been violated and breached.

Former military President (Gen. rtd) Ibrahim Babangida once said, “Most importantly, nothing has happened to change my conviction that freedom and the love of liberty remain the essential defining attributes of our national character as a people.”   He is indeed spot on.

However, this age of digital media, coupled with the current unfortunate security challenges facing Nigeria, has given rise to unqualified authors and social commentators. Only with a mobile device or personal computer supported with internet facility, people now own ‘newsrooms’. We all can spread news, pictures, stories, comments and reactions using our blogs and social media platforms. The downside is that more often, misguided and unethical practices replace the informed code of conduct that guides the noble media profession.  It is just too obvious that some people cannot handle with maturity, the freedom and limitless platform presented by digital media since there is no control or checks put in place.

These destructive ideas include contempt of religions, discrediting religions, provoking racial, communal, religious, ideological and regional commotion, spreading biased rumours, malignantly distorting facts, libelling, defamation, cursing, fabricating accusations as well as insults etc. Nigerians must learn to embrace call for paradigm shift to foster decency in the internet community. If there are no defined regulations or checks, internet users can also regulate themselves too, within the confines of propriety and maturity.

Nigerian government may not have succeeded in the task to scrutinize abuse of social media, or control on the use of internet facilities in the country for many known reasons at the moment, but other countries of the world have been somewhat tough on their citizens who may wish to subscribe to social media, though such harsh measure are still faced with many criticisms.

A claim by countries like China and middle-east Asian countries was that due to ‘privacy issues’ and ‘objectionable content’ most social websites have to be proscribed in their territory. For example Facebook is banned in countries like China, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, and UAE. Similarly, YouTube is banned in many countries primarily including Turkey, Thailand, Pakistan, China, and Indonesia. So also Twitter is banned in UAE and China.

It came as a surprise that the famous blogging platform is banned in Ethiopia, Pakistan and China. Wikipedia an open source encyclopedia is as well banned in countries like China, Iran, and Pakistan. China blocks almost all top websites including Google (often), Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Orkut, Technorati, Vimeo and many others. China filter-out such sites to allow its own cyber industry to flourish and challenge the western giants.

Written By Mr. EMMANUEL AJIBULU