Withdraw regulations on customers’ social media handles, SERAP urges CBN

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged acting Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Folashodun Shonubi, to immediately delete the “patently unlawful provisions in the CBN Customer Due Diligence regulations directing banks to obtain information on customers’ social media handles for purposes of identification.”

The group also pleaded with the apex bank boss to withdraw the circular numbered: FPR/DIR/PUB/CIR/007/076 of June 20, 2023, mandating banks and other financial institutions to implement and comply with the “unlawful mandatory provisions on customers’ social media handles in the CBN regulations.”

According to Section 6(a) (IV) of the CBN regulations, banks and other financial institutions “shall identify their customers and obtain information on the social media handles of the customers. Section 6(b)(III) contains similar provision.”

In a correspondence issued at the weekend deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation submitted: “The CBN regulations and directive to banks to obtain details of customers’ social media addresses violate Nigerians’ rights to freedom of expression and privacy. It is inconsistent and incompatible with the rule of law.”

“The CBN ought to contribute to the advancement of respect for the rule of law and human rights in the discharge of its statutory functions, and not undermine or violate these fundamental legal requirements and standards.”

According to the group, the purported mandatory requirement would inhibit Nigerians from freely exercising their human rights online, noting: “ If obtained, such information may also be misused for political and other unlawful purposes.”

SERAP observed that the policy does not serve any “legitimate aim.” It argued that such information might be deployed to unjustifiably or arbitrarily restrict rights to freedom of expression and privacy.

The group held: “Requiring social media handles or addresses of customers as a means of identification would have a disproportionate chilling effect on the effective enjoyment by Nigerians of their rights to freedom of expression and privacy online.

“The CBN bears the burden of justifying any restriction on people’s freedom of expression and privacy. Under the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and human rights treaties to which the country is a state party, any restriction on these rights must be applied strictly so that the rights are not put in jeopardy.

“There are other means of identification such as passport, driver’s licence, Bank Verification Number (BVN) and Tax Identification Number (TIN), which banks and other financial institutions already require their customers to provide.

“The additional requirement of obtaining details of a customer’s social media handle or address fails to meet the requirements of legality, necessity and proportionality.”

“The requirement of necessity implies an assessment of the proportionality of the grounds, with the aim of ensuring that the excuse of ‘regulations on customer due diligence’ is not used as a pretext to unduly intrude upon the rights to freedom of expression and privacy,” SERAP said.