THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON NATIONAL SECURITY: NIGERIA’S PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to examine the roles of social media on national security from Nigerian perspective. The result of the study showed that the common forms of social media that Nigerians are exposed to are Facebook, Whatsapp, 2go and Twitter.

From the study, it was observed that the social media is a principal player in the area of national security in Nigeria. It can also be as an effective surveillance of the environment, conveying information on security issues in Nigeria, Creating a highly interactive platform for discussing security challenges and unveiling areas of individuals and entities that may likely constitute a breach to national security.

The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Using the purposive and simple random sampling, one hundred occupations relating to media and security, around Nigeria were selected for the study. Questionnaire, as primary instrument for data collection were randomly distributed among the respondents. The data obtained were analyzed descriptively and presented in percentage frequency distribution tables.

Conversely, the findings of this study showed that social media can have negative impact on national security. Since social media can be used to disseminate false information about the security issues in Nigeria and can be used to propagate internal conflicts and violence. It can also be used as an interactive forum against national security.

Finally, this study suggested ways of improving social media for effective management of national security in Nigeria to include that government should always checkmate the activities in all the social networking sites in Nigeria. Intelligence agencies and all the armed forces should endeavor to check the social media regularly for any updates that may affect national security and there should be a level of privacy and restrictions of activities in social media interactions in Nigeria.