4 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
On Tuesday, 15 March, I will be at Voice Of Nigeria, a radio network, to discuss “The Cybercrime Act 2015”. The programme is called “Youth Forum”. Many of us, who are online, are not aware of the details of the Cybercrime Act. Let me break it down. Pay attention, this is key. Don’t perish for lack of knowledge.
Let’s get started.
1- Identity Theft
My name is Simon Ateba, the publisher of SimonAtebaNews. In August last year, while trying to investigate the living conditions of Nigerian refugees in Cameroon, I was arrested, detained for days and accused of being a #BokoHaram spy but survived. I have been called an illiterate by the former minister of aviation, Stella Oduah, and beaten almost to death by Christ Embassy pastors and security men for trying to take a picture of the church in Lagos, but survived. I have been attacked by pirates on the Gulf of Guinea and kidnapped in a bus in Lagos and dumped in a bush, but survived. I am a trained journalist and hold postgraduate diploma in Public relations and advertising. I have written thousands of articles and sacrificed my life for the common good. I have not made a lot of money, but I have built a brand, a name and a reputation as a fearless, daring, credible, honest and reliable writer, thinker and advocate.
With all of that, one day, a nobody who has not done anything with his or her life steals my Facebook photograph and clones my page and pretends to be me. The cybercrime act says if found guilty, he or she should go to jail for not less than three years or pay a fine of not less than 7 million naira, immediately turning me into a millionaire….If ten guys are found guilty, I make 70 million naira minus what the greedy lawyers will snatch from me.
Anyway, that is what the act prescribes for identity theft. Like the guy who stole the identity of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That’s identity theft. Pretending to be someone you’re not, using the identity of those who have made it or built their brands in life. The law says, you go to jail for three years or pay N7 million.
2- child pornography
There are many other provisions. Those who create child pornography for instance will go to jail for ten years or pay a fine of at least 20 million naira, the act says.
3- Hackers
That’s not all. Hackers will bag five year jail term or pay a fine of 10 million.
4. Stalkers and those who bully us online
And those who bully me or stalk me online will pay between 2 million and 25 million or spend between a year and 10 years in prison.
5- Cybersquatting
This next one is very important. The act Prohibits cybersquatting, which is registering or using an Internet domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else, or to profit by selling to its rightful owner.
For instance, what they tried to do to my junior colleague Linda Ikeji (Ok my junior colleague with more money for now…I will overtake her soon God willing).
Anyway, knowing that I am doing well, you quickly rush online to buy my domain name and try to sell it to me is an offence in Nigeria. Individuals who engage in this are liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than 2 years or a fine of not less than N5 million or to both fine and imprisonment.
6- Racism, Tribalism and xenophobic materials
The act also prohibits the distribution of racist, xenophobic materials. Luckily, it also mandates the service providers like MTN, Facebook and the rest to keep our traffic data and personal information private, knowing that we have rights to our privacy.
It is a big act that contains 43 sections. So we have an idea. I will be talking about all of these things tomorrow on Voice of Nigeria broadcasting all over the world.
Download Nigeria CyberCrime Act 2015 On Simonateba.com
What are your thoughts?
Simon Ateba is the publisher of Simonateba.com