A bill seeking to amend the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, to require social media platforms to establish physical offices within the country on Tuesday scaled second reading in the Senate.
The bill was sponsored by Senator Ned Nwoko (APC, Delta North).
Senate president, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who presided over the session referred it to the Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Security to report back in two months after a debate by the senators.
In his lead debate on the general principles of the bill, Senator Nwoko said multinational social media corporations such as Facebook, X, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat do not have physical offices in Nigeria, unlike in other climes.
Senator Nwoko outlined several challenges resulting from the absence of social media offices in Nigeria, including: limited local representation; economic losses as well as challenges in legal and Data Protection Compliance.
The bill also proposes new regulations for bloggers operating in Nigeria as it mandates that all bloggers must establish a verifiable office in any of the capital cities across the country, maintain proper employee records and belong to a recognised national association of bloggers, with headquarters in Abuja.
