Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, a social enterprise that builds an ICT-enabled support system and advocates digital rights in Africa, has written a Freedom of Information request to the Nigerian Communications Commission demanding information on the alleged secret blocking of the domain names of #EndSARS related websites by the Nigerian Government.
On Thursday, website of popular women’s right group, Feminist Coalition, and two others allegedly suffered a cyber attack and became inaccessible to Nigerians.
When accessed with a Nigerian mobile network, the websites cannot be reached but when a user uses a VPN, the sites become accessible.
PIN in a statement on Friday described the action as violation of constitutionally and globally guaranteed rights of freedom of expression and access to information.
The statement reads, “Websites related to the campaign have been inaccessible as reported by many citizens and from independent checks carried out by Paradigm Initiative. These attempts are an unacceptable violation of constitutionally and globally guaranteed rights of freedom of expression and access to information.
“In a similar development that occurred in October 2017, we monitored and challenged the Nigerian government’s censorship directive through the Nigerian Communications Commission, an agency which is supposedly independent.
“The NCC must not continue to offer itself to be used by the Federal Government under any guise to intimidate citizens who engage in legitimate protests and exercise their digital rights by leveraging digital platforms for the protest.”
The group’s Senior Program Manager, Adeboye Adegoke, added, “Section 39 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria expressly provides that every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides similarly that everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression.
“This right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”
Speaking also, ‘Gbenga Sesan, Executive Director of PIN, said the group had sent a FoI request to the NCC to answer key questions such as who ordered the recent blocking of websites, the reason for the blocking, disruption, or restriction on the websites.
He said, “We want to know under which legal provision this is being carried out and if the NCC authorised the blocking, disruption, or restriction of these websites. We also need to know if the owners of the websites were informed that their websites will be blocked, and if they were given an opportunity for a fair hearing.
“Another question that must be answered is: Did the NCC act independently or was it acting on behalf of other government institutions? In a country with increasingly closed civic spaces and one that must do more work to protect freedom of expression and press freedom, a dangerous precedent could be set if the NCC continues to carry out the restriction of access to websites that are critical of the government or that support citizens’ right to contribute to our democracy.”
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