Regulating social media in Nigeria: A quantitative perception study

Abstract

The advent of social networks as Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, among others, has revolutionized communications. The power of social media messages rests on its ability to instantly and simultaneously reach a wide, diverse audience, and transforming social life. While the public has overtime become accustomed to the regulation of conventional media like the Radio, TV and Print establishments by government regulatory agencies, the idea of regulating social media, a space which many users consider to be the major avenue to air their views, is one that has generated mixed feelings. This study seeks to understand the perception of everyday Nigerian social media users towards government's attempt to regulation social media, amidst the recently proposed Social Media Regulation Bill by the Nigerian lawmakers. The respondents randomly selected for this study were the University of Abuja students and the researcher adopted the survey research design to collect information from the population through questionnaires. The findings indicated that despite respondents' awareness of the possible demerits of an unregulated social media, majority of them (54%) kick against the idea of social media regulation, while a substantial (46%) support the move on the provision that it is not politicized. The study therefore recommends transparency and openness on the part of government officials for better cooperation by the public. Keywords: Media regulation, Social media regulation, Free speech, Social media bill.