Time to regulate social media has come
I am wholly for the establishment of a proper framework for the regulation of social media in the world, and in Nigeria specifically. Much as I fully agree that social media has liberalized citizens to get their voices heard in a totally unique and boundless way ,and crumbled the walls that stood between the powerful and the powerless, time has come for all to take a step back and assess the field of play, to be sure that the tool is not surreptitiously and unfairly used by those who own it, to promote discord in one society and peace in another, in furtherance of a bigger and grander scheme.
Before I continue, let me re-introduce myself. I am an IT professional to the core, who spent the last 21 years in the field, building bespoke information technology infrastructure, solutions and platforms for solving national and cross-border challenges in a diversity of industries and communities. I am also a heavy addict to social media which has afforded me quantifiable opportunities to network with, and be known by powerless and powerful people across the globe, including putting food on my table. I am a social media creature. A netizen.
In the last couple of years however, I have come to the painful realization that the unfettered freedom that the social media platform offers, has been hijacked and manipulated by powerful interest groups to plant discord, anarchy and strife in different societies. Just as it is used to plant peace in others.
The liberalization of the media space comes with dire downsides which need to be mitigated to ensure balance and order especially in developing societies such as Nigeria. I will cite few examples.
When Osama Bin Laden attacked America on 9/11, I watched graphic live media coverage of that sordid terror on CNN. I saw dead bodies strewn across ground zero in New York City. I saw people jump from the World Trade Center to death. Subsequently however, all the graphic images stopped on TV. Not one dead body has been shown since then by any media organization, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. I have searched the internet endlessly to find pieces of video or still pictures of that event. Not one exists online showing either a dead body or someone struggling to live. All have been removed. Because American pride and national interest were at stake.
Between then and now, America and Europe have suffered several terror attacks including roadside stabbings, mass murder, mass shootings, etc. Charlie Hebdo, Brussels, Paris, Boston Marathon, etc., came under fatal terror attacks. Paradoxically, video footage of such attacks were never allowed to be circulated on conventional or social media because they were deemed inappropriate and unsuitable for public consumption, to protect the victims and the dignity of Europe and America. Fair enough.
When ISIS took the world by storm and setup base in Iraq and Syria, several Americans and Europeans were caught and beheaded on live video. James Foley, Steven Sotlof, David Haines, Hervé Gourdel, Alan Henning, Peter Kassig were all beheaded gruesomely in 2014. Videos of these despicable incidents were posted on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp by ISIS. But the social media channels removed those contents immediately. No trace till this day.
In 2011, American special forces conducted midnight raid of the secret Pakistani home of Osama Bin Laden – the world’s most wanted man. He was killed, alongside his wife and children. The entire operation was streamed live to President Obama in the Situation Room, flanked by other top officials of the US government. The video of that operation, as well as proof of the execution of Osama bin Laden, including his body have never been released in any media to this day, even when America is touted as the bastion of freedom, free speech and democracy.
The censoring of social media content in America, Europe and other developed countries are done to protect the republic. It is in the overriding interest of the public, mankind and civilization. But the rules in Nigeria and other African countries are different.
In Nigeria for example, Boko Haram freely broadcasts its bloody graphic propaganda videos on Twitter and YouTube without let or hindrance. Videos of public execution of citizens by proscribed organizations and terror groups are allowed to trend forever. Graphic offensive images of bestial attacks, bloodbath and cruelty are abated by deliberate smart algorithms designed to keep them afloat on social media front pages. Images of bodies that are taboo to broadcast in America, are commonplace in the Nigerian Twitter, Whatsapp and Facebook space. Groups set up to create anarchy in the land are secretly helped to push their incendiary propaganda to the front, while offensive distorted content deliberately planted to scare the masses, evoke passions, rile up emotions and endanger lives are allowed to fester. That is not free speech. That is anarchy.
Perhaps, Twitter overreached itself by removing the direct warning of President Muhammadu Buhari to anarchists to desist from burning down public infrastructure, seeking war and killing policemen, from its platform. I have read, watched, re-read, re-watched and parsed the video clip in which the Nigerian President made those remarks, and put it in context with the spiraling lawlessness threatening to consume the country. I come to the conclusion that the conditional statement neither contained a genocidal threat (as has been criminally interpreted by Twitter) nor deserved to be treated with disrespect the way it was.
Nigeria is an imperfect sovereign state with huge developmental challenges, including a succession of bad corruptly minded despicable leaders who have held it down for decades. Even as we battle to create a more perfect union, time has come for rules to be developed for Twitter and other social media organizations to operate under. Part of the operational rules should include promoting content that heal and bind the country, and removing content that divide and ruin the country. There should be a clearing house where offensive content are reported and action taken to compensate persons injured by such content. As is done in America and Europe.
The era of unrestrained unregulated foreign social media behemoths, hiding under free speech to wreak havoc in the society should come to an end immediately. If a white man’s dead body is not suitable for broadcast, then a black man’s dead body should not also be suitable for broadcast.
That is common sense.
***Celestine Mel is a chartered banker and IT Projects Lead. He writes from Abuja – FCT.
