From Twitter…to Prison?

1 message

Lawpadi <contact@lawpadi.com> Tue, 16 Apr 2024 at 08:29

Reply to: Lawpadi <contact@lawpadi.com>
To: oremetaede@gmail.com

Note to the Lawpadi Network - April 15, 2024

Legal Term of the Week - Pecuniary jurisdiction

Pecuniary jurisdiction is the monetary limit or authority of a court to hear and decide
cases based on the amount of money involved in such cases. In Lagos for instance,
the Small Claims court cannot determine matters involving money exceeding five

million naira (N5,000,000).

FROM TWITTER TO…PRISON?

Have you ever heard the phrase, “social media is not a real place”?

People usually say this to mean that social media projects a picture of others' lives

that may not always be true… this idea of social media, while potentially valid in that

context, is definitely not valid in the legal sense. Social media is in fact real and the

things we post, say and do on social media have real life implications!

If you need any convincing, then look no further than the . Cybercrimes (Prohibition

and Prevention) Act 2015 which is a law that criminalizes certain acts that are

committed online.

For some, it might be the first time you're hearing about this law and for the others

who may be familiar with it, there are certain provisions of the law that you may be

surprised to know exist but before we examine its provisions, here are two things

that you should note about the Cybercrimes Act 2015:

The law is not specific to social media use alone. It broadly governs the use

of digital and information technology, however there are core provisions of

the Act that bother on conduct on social media and several persons have

faced penalties under this Act for breaking these provisions.

It is a criminal law so failure to comply with it gives rise to penalties that

range from fines to life imprisonment.

In this newsletter, we'll show you six (6) social media crimes contained in the

Cybercrimes Act 2015.

But before then, why is it important to know these laws? Simple- because

ignorance of the law is not an excuse.

A recent case of Defamation

Just recently, it was reported in the media that a popular gospel artiste posted a

picture of her newborn baby on social media and an X (formerly twitter) user made

a comment that the child does not resemble his father. The person went on to

assert that the child looked like another gospel artiste. His statement was

suggestive of the fact that the other artiste is the father of the child. Four other

persons made statements that supported this allegation.

The couple brought a complaint against the Twitter users which led to a Magistrate

Court summoning all the five persons allegedly involved to face charges of criminal

defamation.

So what started off as a mere comment on a post has now led to potential jail time.

It is important that you are aware of the laws that regulate online interactions and

ensure that you are not in breach of any of them.

That being said, let's dive into some of the social media crimes contained in the

Cybercrime Act that you should know of:

1. CYBER-STALKING- Section 24 (1)

Cyberstalking includes:

Sending offensive pornographic or indecent messages to another person

against their will.

Knowingly posting false statements in order to annoy, insult, intimidate

another person or for other similar reasons.

The penalty for this offense is a fine of not more than N7,000,000 or three years

imprisonment or both, as the case may be.

Last year, news broke out about some persons on social media who accused

former Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola of having written

the judgment that would be read by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal

during the last Presidential election petition.

The former minister took exception to the allegation and petitioned the Inspector

General of Police to investigate and possibly charge the persons involved for

criminal defamation.

2. CYBER-BULLYING- Section 24 (2)

As the name implies, this refers to:

Bullying, threatening or harassing another person in order to cause him/her

 to be in fear of death, violence or grievous bodily harm.

Threatening to kidnap a person or his/her loved ones.

Threatening to harm the property or reputation of another person.

The penalty for the offences range from 3-10 imprisonment and/or a minimum fine

of N10,000,000 - N25,000,000.

3. CHILD PORNOGRAPHY- Section 23 (1)

Child pornography refers to materials that visually depict a minor engaging in

sexual conduct.This offense can take various forms, namely:

Producing child pornography;

Offering or making available child pornography;

Distributing or transmitting child pornography;

Procuring child pornography for oneself or for another person;

Possessing child pornography in a computer system or on a computer data

storage medium.

In 2018, there was an interesting story of a Nigerian lady based in the UK who

forwarded a video of a child being raped to a WhatsApp group. She claimed that

she wanted to “warn” other members of the group about leaving young children

unsupervised. As you'd expect, her story wasn't credible enough. Her actions still

amounted to distribution of child pornography which she was sentenced to jail for.

You can read more on the story here.

4. HATE SPEECH- Section 26

It is a criminal offence to post materials that are racist, xenophobic materials or

that justify genocide or crimes against humanity. The penalty is a term of

imprisonment not exceeding 5 years and/or a fine of not less than N10,000,000.

5. IDENTITY THEFT- Section 22 (3)

Intentionally impersonating another person whether alive or dead via social media,

to gain an advantage, whether monetary or not, is a criminal offense punishable

with a maximum of 5 years imprisonment and/or a fine of not exceeding

N7,000,000.

6. PHISHING AND SPAMMING- Section 32

Phishing refers to fraudulent mails, text messages and direct messages that
appear to come from a legitimate source but are sent with an intention to retrieve

sensitive data or login information from a person usually in order to steal his/her

money.

Spamming on the other hand is sending multiple unsolicited messages to large

numbers of people which could be with the intention of phishing.

Both acts are cybercrimes. Phishing attracts a penalty of 3 years imprisonment

and/or a fine of N1,000,000.

Spamming on the other hand, when done with an intention to disrupt the operations

of a person's computer, has the same penalty of 3 years imprisonment and/or a

fine of N1,000,000.

Thanks to social media, committing a crime has never been easier… just kidding.

But do you see that it's really a slippery slope?

This is why it's important to fact check information before you post or repost it

(yes, reposting can also get you in trouble).

As you might've seen from the stories we've shared, being careless on social media

has offline (real life) repercussions that include jail time and/or hefty fines levied

against a person.

Thankfully, not anyone from the LawPadi community, right?

Why not share this newsletter with your friends and colleagues to educate them on

these laws.

Also, kindly head over to our social media handles to tell us which of the provisions

of the Cybercrimes Act that you're just learning about for the first time.

We look forward to your comments. Hope you enjoyed this newsletter, see you next

week!

Hope you enjoyed this newsletter, see you next week!

Best regards,

Ikanke on behalf of the Lawpadi Team

Good Law, Bad Law

All operators of a cybercafe must register their cybercafe with the Computer

Professionals' Registration Council in addition to a business name registration with

the Corporate Affairs Commission. A cybercafe must also maintain a register of users
through a sign-in register which shall be available to law enforcement personnel

whenever needed.

See Section 7 (1) of Cybercrime (Prohibition and Prevention) Act 2015.

Is this good law or bad law?

Is this good law or bad law?

WANT TO ADVERTISE WITH US?

Email us at contact@lawpadi.com

Did someone forward this email to you? If you enjoyed reading it, then head over to
lawpadi.com/sign-up to join the Lawpadi network.

Unsubscribe or Manage Preferences