Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, says social media must be regulated to protect national interests.
This is even as he said the House was yet to take any position on the suspension of micro blogging platform Twitter by the Federal Government.
He said this during an interview on Channels Television on Sunday.
“The social media is the most potent weapon for good and for evil. While we welcome the good, we must prepare over the evil. You cannot use the idea of free speech to destroy me,” the Speaker said.
“Most democracies in the world today are making efforts to regulate the social media and the National Assembly has been considering regulating the social media for long. But each time the issue comes up, Nigerians kick against it.
“It is something we need to do because we have a responsibility to protect every single citizen in this country and that is what we must do”.
Gbajabiamila said whatever position the National Assembly take would be in the overall interest of the Nigerian people.
“We are elected by the people to represent them and ordinarily, we should be on their side. But this is not a beauty contest. You must listen to all sides. Government says Twitter poses threat to national security. What are the information available to them that we are not privy to?,” he said.
