Social Media Is Now A Menace, Must Be Regulated – Gbajabiamila

Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, has stated that social media has turned into a threat to society and has to be controlled.

Gbajabiamila made this statement while speaking on Tinubu’s behalf at the Lagos public launch of Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Works and Housing,’s book “Nigerian Public Discourse: The Interplay of Empirical Evidence and Hyperbole.”

This is in line with a statement made on Thursday by Tunde Alao, the Lagos State Deputy Governor’s Senior Special Assistant to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Media).

Social media has to be controlled since it has turned into a threat to society. Many people are unaware that when the send button is pressed, information could potentially reach millions of people worldwide, posing a serious risk to everyone who receives it—including their lives—and that could have unintended consequences for those who do not understand this, according to the statement quoting Gbajabiamila.

Obafemi Hamzat, Governor Sanwo-Olu’s deputy, was also present at the function.

According to the statement, Tinubu insisted that his administration was required to hold evidence-based discussions and make decisions based on data, which is why reliable data was necessary to improve the creation and implementation of policies.

“It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that engagement with citizens springs from shared agreement on what the truth is, what is real and what is not,” Gbajabiamila stated, adding that as individuals grow more interested in governance.

The president expressed gratitude to the author for compiling his ideas and experiences from his time as a federal executive council member and governor into a book.

During his speech, Hamzat said that having reliable data would be beneficial in resolving the many issues the country is currently facing. He went on to say that “for a developing country like us, part of the problem we have is that we don’t have data, which is very crucial for policy formulation for national development.”

“Deterministic data is essential even in our daily lives, even on issues such as building – buildings require correct data to know the threats,” he said, emphasizing the value of data.

The book’s author, Fashola, said in his remarks that the book was prepared based on his 21 years of experience holding public office and emphasized various public issues.

Fashola was cited as saying, “My joy is that the conversation has just started, and by and large, we will get good and positive results in our quests for national development.”

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project encouraged Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas and Senate President Godswill Akpabio “to reject the recently reintroduced social media regulation bill” in October 2023.

SERAP called on Tinubu’s administration to halt its attempts to force digital companies like Google and YouTube to restrict such “fundamental human rights,” pointing out that the bill’s approval “would unduly restrict the rights to freedom of expression and privacy.”

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