Social Media Influencing, Blurring Defamatory Boundaries and the Burden of Legal Accountability in Nigeria’s Digital Space

Abstract

Social media has changed how reputation is built and destroyed in Nigeria, and the law has struggled to keep pace. This article asks whether Nigerian law holds online speakers, particularly social media influencers, accountable for reputational harm without unduly restricting freedom of expression. Combining doctrinal legal analysis with a qualitative study of five reported Nigerian disputes, it examines the law of defamation, section 24 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015 as amended in 2024, the constitutional guarantee of free expression, advertising regulation and media ethics. Five findings emerge. First, reputation remains a legitimate interest that deserves firm protection, especially against targeted and repeated falsehoods. Second, criminal process has too often been deployed in disputes that are, in substance, civil, so that arrest and remand punish speakers before any finding of fault. Third, influencers exercise journalistic and commercial power without corresponding ethical duties. Fourth, Nigerian law offers no clear public interest defence for online speech. Fifth, the responsibility of platforms for content they monetise is only beginning to be defined by the courts. The article contends that the 2024 amendment, though a real improvement, does not by itself resolve these problems. It proposes a coherent framework in which civil remedies are primary, criminal sanctions are confined to clearly defined serious harms, influencer ethics are formalised in a code of practice, platform duties are defined through notice and takedown rules, and public interest speech is expressly protected.