LAGOS JULY 20TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas to immediately withdraw the Nigeria Data Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2026, describing it as a “backdoor attempt” to regulate social media and tighten government control over online expression.
In a letter dated July 18, 2026 and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP warned that it would take legal action if the bill is passed in its current form.
Sponsored by Senator Ned Nwoko (APC, Delta North), the bill seeks to compel social media platforms, data controllers and data processors operating in Nigeria to establish physical offices in the country. It also empowers the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) to shut down or prohibit the operations of any entity that fails to comply within 30 days.
SERAP argued that mandatory local offices would “increase government leverage over platforms, facilitate political pressure, make censorship demands easier and expose local employees to retaliation.”
The organisation said the bill would grant regulators sweeping powers capable of excluding digital platforms from Nigeria, thereby threatening the rights of millions of Nigerians who rely on social media for freedom of expression, access to information, business, education and civic engagement.
“The Bill constitutes a backdoor attempt to regulate social media and increase governmental control over online expression through corporate localisation requirements rather than through transparent and constitutionally permissible regulation,” the letter stated.
SERAP also warned that the proposal could effectively recreate the impact of the Federal Government’s 2021 suspension of Twitter, which the ECOWAS Court of Justice ruled violated freedom of expression.
“Although the present Bill differs from the Twitter suspension in form, it creates the possibility of achieving the same result indirectly by empowering regulators to prohibit digital platforms from operating in Nigeria,” it said.
The organisation argued that the proposed amendment lacks key procedural safeguards, including prior judicial authorisation, adequate opportunities for compliance, and consideration of less restrictive alternatives before platforms can be shut down.
It further maintained that there is no evidence that existing provisions under the Nigeria Data Protection Act are inadequate or that the proposed measures satisfy the constitutional tests of necessity and proportionality.
SERAP also warned that the legislation would undermine Nigeria’s digital economy by increasing compliance costs for startups, AI developers, educational institutions and smaller technology firms, making the country less attractive for innovation and investment.
The organisation urged the National Assembly to withdraw the bill, insisting that it is incompatible with the Nigerian Constitution as well as Nigeria’s obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
It added that if the bill is enacted “in its current or substantially similar form,” it would “promptly take all appropriate legal actions to challenge its legality in the public interest and to ensure that Nigerians’ fundamental rights are fully protected.”
SaharaReporters
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