The Nigeria Data Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2026, sponsored by Senator Ned Nwoko (APC, Delta North), seeks to compel social media platforms, data controllers and data processors operating in Nigeria to establish physical offices in the country, and empowers the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) to shut down or prohibit the operations of any entity that fails to comply within 30 days.

One of the sanctions contained in the bill is the exclusion of digital platforms from Nigeria for not having a physical office in the country. This corporate localisation requirement for big tech companies is being suspected as a vehicle for the government to expand control over digital platforms and Nigerians’ online expression.

Experts believe that the proposed legislation resembles the Nigerian government’s 222-day clampdown on Twitter (now X) which took effect on  June 4, 2021. The ban was lifted at midnight on January 13, 2022, after the platform agreed to Nigerian laws, local taxation, and the appointment of a country representative.

The ECOWAS Court of Justice, while delivering judgment in SERAP and Others vs. Federal Republic of Nigeria, held that the suspension of Twitter violated the rights to freedom of expression, access to information and media freedom protected under the African Charter.

The new bill, if passed into law, will reportedly authorise the NDPC to impose sanctions comparable to a nationwide restriction on digital communication without the procedural guarantees ordinarily required whenever fundamental rights are at stake.

While calling on the National Assembly to drop the legislation, SERAP argues that “A law empowering regulators to exclude digital platforms from Nigeria inevitably interferes with the rights of the people who rely upon those platforms.”

“The bill would create sweeping powers capable of shutting down or excluding social media platforms from the Nigerian market and expose millions of Nigerians to serious violations of their constitutionally and internationally guaranteed human rights.

The proposed amendment completely fails the constitutional and international human rights law requirements of necessity and proportionality,” read part of a July 18 letter addressed to both leaders of the National Assembly and signed by Kolawole Oluwadare, the Deputy Director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project.