Regulating Social Media: Freedom of Expression, Media Literacy and New Media Governance in Nigeria
Vincent is funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission to conduct PhD research into the regulation of social media in Nigeria, situating it within the global context of new media governance. His research seeks to contribute to knowledge on the nuances at play when states rise to control the new media space with implications for the twin concepts of freedom of expression and securitisation. This has become crucial considering the ease and scale with which harmful information is spread on social media and the increasing move by states to regulate what happens in online and social media spaces. A bill to just this has been introduced in the Nigerian parliament, making it possible to study the reactions, processes and implication of such a move, especially as pertaining to freedom of expression and the potential that media literacy has in a governance framework.
The research will contribute to regulatory governance studies, particularly emerging debates surrounding the regulation of and by technologies. Beyond this, it seeks to provide new knowledge on the pattern of new media regulation in countries like Nigeria where recent developments have little to do with the regulation of and by technologies, but more with the regulation of what people do online.
