The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), says there is no room for cybercrime, hate speech and fake news on the Internet it wants, urging Nigerians against an activity that qualifies as such.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, gave the warning in a keynote address with the theme: “The Internet We Want and the Role of the Regulator”, at a social media summit in Kano yesterday.
He noted that the Internet is a powerful tool for citizen engagement for any nation towards achieving greater socio-political and economic posterity in a country, and as such should not be leveraged in activities that are inimical to the development of Nigeria.
“As
the agency saddled with the responsibility of driving digital transformation
and revolution in Nigeria, the NCC has ultimately deepened access to digital
tools and services that are available to most Nigerians. We do not expect these
tools to be used wrongly,” he said.
With increased access
to the Internet and more importantly, broadband, many telecom consumers can
engage and be engaged, especially through social media platforms accessible on
their various Internet-enabled mobile devices.
The EVC stressed that the core role of the Commission is to ensure widespread
access to digital services, riding on Internet platform through ensuring
availability, accessibility and affordability of telecom services in rural,
underserved and unserved areas of the country, the role which, he said, the
Commission has been delivering diligently.
He stated the Commission is focused on achieving what he referred to as ‘the
Internet of Relevance (IoR)’ which speaks to the utilitarian value of the
Internet to bring efficiency and effectiveness into different sectors of the
economy, including healthcare, commerce education, agriculture, politics among
others.