Some notable Nigerians have called the attention of the Nigerian Commnications Commission (NCC) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to caution those they considered as using the Internet space to bully and manipulate the electoral climate, as the 2019 elections is weeks away.
They believe that the Internet space has been taken over by those they described as online thugs, warning that whatever is being posted on the Internet remains there and may come back to hurt whoever posted it in the future.
“The 2019 elections are weeks away – political thugs have taken over the cyber space, channeling insults and threats to each other. This is dangerous and capable of spiraling into hates or possibly war,” warned Pius Amodu, Abuja based social media enthusiast.
Amodu noted that the trend is worrisome, calling on the regulatory authority to wade in before it turns into a situation that cannot be controlled. “I believe the NCC, NITDA and other regulatory agencies should be smart enough to put a stop to this trend before it destroys our country,” he added.
Also lending his voice on the matter, Mr. Chopinx Omoroh, a social commentator noted that politicians are leveraging the pool of unemployed Nigerians, arming them with laptops and other gadgets, thereby encouraging cyber-thuggery and fueling tension in the country.
“The activities of these youths are deepening the intensity of hate speech in Nigeria and practically forcing people to relocate as the elections draw near,” he said.
Omoroh said, he observed that many Nigerians are now moving and relocating from their present place of abode, especially in the North, which they considered as flash point to their villages for fear of attack.
These envisaged attacks; Omoroh argues, are largely orchestrated by the online thugs.
In the past, elections thuggery was done on the streets, but the trend has changed. Political thuggery has gone digital. This can be attributed to the huge number of Nigerians on social media and the level of Internet penetration in the country, where over 108 million Nigerians are online as at November 2018, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s report.
Online thuggery has gained prominent recently. While some Nigerians do it full-time, working from work or office, others work part-time with different pseudonyms each for news websites and blogs. Some are also tagged as influencers on social media, especially Facebook and Twitter.