Human rights activist Omoyele Sowore has filed fresh suits at the Federal High Court, Abuja, against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta (owners of Facebook), and X Corp over alleged attempts to censor his social media posts critical of President Bola Tinubu.
This was confirmed in a statement signed by his lawyer, Tope Temokun, and posted on Facebook on Tuesday.
Temokun stated that the suits were launched to contest “the unconstitutional censorship initiated by the DSS/SSS against Sowore’s accounts maintained with Meta and X.”
The attorney emphasized that the issue was about protecting free expression.
“If state agencies can dictate to global platforms who may speak and what may be said, then no Nigerian is safe; their voices will be silenced at the whim of those in power.
“Censorship of political criticism is alien to democracy. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in Section 39, guarantees every citizen the right to freedom of expression, without interference.
“No security agency, no matter how powerful, can suspend or delete those rights,” the statement partly read.
Temokun also argued that Meta and X risk complicity in repression if they comply with such demands.
“Meta and X must also understand this: When they bow to unlawful censorship demands, they become complicit in the suppression of liberty.
“They cannot hide behind neutrality while authoritarianism is exported onto their platforms,” the statement added.
The action seeks, among other things, a determination that the DSS has no legal authority to control Nigerians on social media and that Meta and X must not operate as “tools of repression.”
Recall that Sowore had previously stated in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the DSS’s move violated human rights.
“The State Security Service, alias @OfficialDSSNG, today filed a 5-count charge at the Federal High Court in Abuja against ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and myself.
“They claimed that because I called Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a criminal, I have somehow committed a set of ‘novel’ offenses they invented and spread across five counts.
“Regardless, I will be present whenever this case is assigned for trial. #RevolutionNow,” Sowore wrote.
Sowore had earlier vowed not to delete the contentious tweet despite a reported request from the DSS to X, demanding its removal.
At the time, Sowore tweeted a notification from X confirming that the platform had received a legal request from the Nigerian secret police regarding his post.
The message from X read in part, “We have not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request. As X strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of our users, it is our policy to notify our users if we receive a legal request from an authorized entity.”
