IMEIs and NINs – Everything In Between: Since the prequel to this article[1], which was essentially a synopsis of key issues in the international tech space, a number of global and local events have transpired and further drawn attention to the big tech discourse.
In mid-January, 2021, just before the country’s general elections, the Ugandan government shutdown the nation’s internet. This policy crippled all online activities including the use of social media platforms. Although the government restored full internet access as well as access to major social media platforms in February, Facebook remains banned in the country.
Facebook, in the build up to the elections had apparently taken down posts deemed to have been written to incite attacks on opposition members. President Museveni in issuing the ban, accused Facebook of bias, noting – “there is no way anybody can come [here] and play around with our country and decide who is good [and] who is bad”. [2]
Most recently, the Nigerian government has banned the use of Twitter in the country, as it is of the view that the platform currently creates an avenue for the incitement of violence, propaganda fostering and the ultimate destabilisation of the country. Many are of the opinion that the decision of the Nigerian government was informed by Twitter’s deletion of a tweet of the President which violated Twitter community rules as it had referenced a violent and painful part of the Nation’s history – the Nigerian Civil War.
Whatever the ratio for the government’s decision, the fact remains that Twitter is currently banned in the country.
The Nigerian government, has also come under criticism for issuing a circular which according to critics seems to mandate Nigerians to submit their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) to the government. The Government in response has stated Nigerians would not be required to submit their IMEIs but maintains that a central registry of IMEIs would be developed in the coming months to guard against phone theft, the counterfeit mobile market, kidnappings, and terrorism amongst other security concerns.
Indeed, it is the distrust surrounding the NIN-SIM linking process that this article seeks to engage.
