ABUSE OF. SOCIAL MEDIA

GD aM guyz...¶ the Social Media has no become part of our lives, infact It is now a ritual,that is performed by not just the youths but evrybody around the globe.....¶ think we shld say something abt the Abuse of Social mEdium here 2day

Social media is a term used to collectively describe a set of tools that foster
interaction, discussion and community, allowing people to build relationships
and share information. Media is an instrument on communication, like a
newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of
communication. It is easy to confuse social media with social news because
we often refer to members of the news as "the media." Adding to the mix
is the fact that a social news site is also a social media site because it falls
into that broader category.
Meanwhile social news is not the same thing as social media anymore than a
banana is the same thing as fruit. A banana is a type of fruit, but fruit
can also be grapes, pineapples, or lemons. And while social news is social
media, social networking and wikis are also social media. Few of such
examples are Blogs (posting articles), Facebook, LinkedIn (networking),
Twitter (networking), YouTube, Flickr (photos & video) to mention a
view.
Think of abuse, for some reasons politicians come to mind. They are one
breed which has brutally been punished by social media. Mudslinging has got
a new medium, and people are venting all their wrath and anger by blasting
off tweet after tweet, mocking every aspect of these servants of society.
In a related development, internet abuse involves the use of the internet in an
abusive manner. It consists of threats and harassment, viruses, spamming,
port scanning, hacking, denial-of-service attack (DoS attack), and
copyright infringement. One may argue that there must be some measures
expected to be put in place by the government to check the abuse of use of
social media, but it is also imperative to note that the privacy of the users is
also important especially those involved with decent and other activities that
are not nefarious. What a dilemma?
Recently the House of Representatives, detailed its committees on
Information Communication Technology, Justice and Anti-corruption to
investigate the alleged award of over $ 40 million internet spying contract to
a foreign company to monitor computers and internet activities of over 45
millions Nigerians on the web by the Federal Government. To this end, the
House urged the Federal Government to suspend all action with regards to
the contract pending the outcome of its investigations.
The House resolution was sequel to a motion of urgent public importance
raised by Honourable Ibrahim Gusau, entitled: “A motion for the need to
investigate the alleged over $40 million surveillance contract awarded by
Federal Government to a foreign firm.” The mover of the motion equally
maintained that reports had it that the contract was awarded secretly and in
wanton disregard of due process, fiscal responsibility act, and Bureau of
Public Procurement Act 2007.
According to him, “the award of the contract has violated the basic privacy
provision in Chapter 4, Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
The contract under the guise of intelligence gathering and national security
may not be the answer to the glaring security challenges of today’s
Nigeria.” He noted that if the alleged contract was allowed the right to
private and family life enshrined in the 1999 Constitution as amended
would have been violated and breached.
Former military President (Gen. rtd) Ibrahim Babangida once said,
“Most importantly, nothing has happened to change my conviction that
freedom and the love of liberty remain the essential defining attributes of
our national character as a people.” He is indeed spot on.
However, this age of digital media, coupled with the current unfortunate
security challenges facing Nigeria, has given rise to unqualified authors and
social commentators. Only with a mobile device or personal computer
supported with internet facility, people now own ‘newsrooms’. We all can
spread news, pictures, stories, comments and reactions using our blogs and
social media platforms. The downside is that more often, misguided and
unethical practices replace the informed code of conduct that guides the noble
media profession. It is just too obvious that some people cannot handle
with maturity, the freedom and limitless platform presented by digital media
since there is no control or checks put in place.
These destructive ideas include contempt of religions, discrediting religions,
provoking racial, communal, religious, ideological and regional commotion,
spreading biased rumours, malignantly distorting facts, libelling,
defamation, cursing, fabricating accusations as well as insults etc. Nigerians
must learn to embrace call for paradigm shift to foster decency in the
internet community. If there are no defined regulations or checks, internet
users can also regulate themselves too, within the confines of propriety and
maturity.
Nigerian government may not have succeeded in the task to scrutinize abuse
of social media, or control on the use of internet facilities in the country
for many known reasons at the moment, but other countries of the world
have been somewhat tough on their citizens who may wish to subscribe to
social media, though such harsh measure are still faced with many criticisms.
A claim by countries like China and middle-east Asian countries was that
due to ‘privacy issues’ and ‘objectionable content’ most social websites have to
be proscribed in their territory. For example Facebook is banned in countries
like China, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, and UAE. Similarly, YouTube is
banned in many countries primarily including Turkey, Thailand, Pakistan,
China, and Indonesia. So also Twitter is banned in UAE and China.
It came as a surprise that the famous blogging platform is banned in
Ethiopia, Pakistan and China. Wikipedia an open source encyclopedia is
as well banned in countries like China, Iran, and Pakistan. China blocks
almost all top websites including Google (often), Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, Wikipedia, Orkut, Technorati, Vimeo and many others. China
filter-out such sites to allow its own cyber industry to flourish and challenge
the western giants.

ANIFOWoSHE TitILopE. 300L LAw University of Ilorin, titilopeanny@gmail.com. @classicaltiti