The Nigerian Communications Commission has said it is not involved in the regulation of social media.
This is as the NCC said it would continue to consult stakeholders on issues affecting telecommunication service deployments and developments, in line with its culture of inclusiveness, collaboration and partnership, as predicated on its strategic focus.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Professor Garba Danbatta, represented by the Commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka, gave the assurance while receiving a delegation of Food Basket Foundation International, led by its Chief Executive Officer, Funmi Akinyele, during a courtesy visit to the NCC Headquarters in Abuja.
A statement by Muoka on Monday affirmed that the Commission was committed to strengthening its regulation of the telecommunication sector, particularly providing the solid infrastructure and general industry regulations.
While commending the Commission’s regulatory excellence, highlighting its effort in ensuring there were regulations, frameworks and guidelines to guard the telecoms sector and online civic space, Akinyele expressed concerns about the state of the social media with uncontrolled content.
She said the visit to the regulator was to explore areas of collaboration in its programme to protect the digital civic space by combating misinformation and disinformation while mitigating risks to the digital civic space to ensure electoral integrity before, during and after the 2023 general election.
Speaking further, Muoka informed the team that the Commission “is not responsible for the regulation of content of social media networks.” According to him, that responsibility was in the purview other agencies.
However, he noted that the Commission had engaged in several aspects of protection of the users of the Internet, such as initiatives towards Child Online Protection, deployment of the Computer Security Incident Response Team, set up to monitor cyber-attacks in the Nigerian cyberspace.
He noted that this was in addition to the activities of the Commission’s department of New Media and Information Security set up to address issued of cybersecurity.
“We have tried not to be a closed organisation. We give lots of premiums to consultations and collaborations, especially in the areas that will ensure that the consumers and stakeholders understand what is going on and to make input that enriches the quality of regulations, as well as being able to access information they may require to safeguard themselves and the society,” he stated.
Muoka also invited the group to join the NCC in carrying out enlightenment campaigns to educate telecom consumers on their roles and responsibilities in order to use the Internet and telecommunication platform safely to counter misuse and abuse.
The Punch