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Pavestones’ Legislative Update: The Hate Speech and Social Media Bills

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Over the past month, two particular bills have originated in the National Assembly and are being debated by legislators with the aim of passing them into law.

The proposed bills are the National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches Bill 2019 and the Protection from Internet Falsehoods and Manipulation and Other Related Matters Bill 2019.

 

The Hate Speech Bill

The National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches Bill 2019 (or the Hate Speech Bill) seeks to outlaw unfair discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, prohibit hate speech, and provide for the establishment of an independent body to combat hate speech. Specifically, the bill criminalizes:

  • Ethnic discrimination;
  • Hate Speech;
  • Harassment on the basis of ethnicity;
  • The utterance of ethnic or racial slurs; and
  • Discrimination by way of victimization.

The bill proposes stringent penalties for the commission of the offences criminalized. For example, the bill states that a person who publishes, produces, provides, or distributes any material through any form of media which is threatening, abusive or insulting with the aim of stirring up ethnic hatred is liable upon conviction to life imprisonment and where the act causes any loss of life, the person shall be sentenced to death by hanging.

The bill passed its first reading in the Senate on November 12, 2019 and is awaiting a second reading. However, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the sponsor of the bill, announced recently that the bill will undergo some “fine-tuning” including “amendments to the death penalty aspect that most Nigerians objected to”.

 

The Social Media Bill

Protection from Internet Falsehoods and Manipulation and Other Related Matters Bill 2019 (or the Social Media Bill) seeks to:

  • prevent the transmission of false statements/declaration of facts in Nigeria;
  • suppress the financing, promotion and other support of online locations that transmit false statements/declaration of facts; and
  • sanction offenders, amongst others.

Penalties for committing an offence under the bill include a fine of up to N300,000 or three years imprisonment for individuals and up to N10,000,000 for corporate organisations.

The bill also seeks to allow law enforcement agencies to order internet service providers to disable internet access to prevent the transmission of false declarations of facts within and outside Nigeria.

The bill passed its second reading in the Senate on November 5, 2019. Following its second reading, it was referred to the committee stage for further legislative action. Once it is considered at this stage, it will be presented to the senate for a third reading. If it passes this reading, it will be forwarded to the House of assembly for concurrence and then presented to the President for assent after which it will become law.