Digital Surveillance and Social Justice in Nigeria: A study of New Media Regulations

This thesis reveals the social implication of digital surveillance in the Nigeria polity, using Faircloughian Critical Discourse Analysis as a method of analysing data with a transdisciplinary framework of political economy discourse, a theory of the state and a Critical Discourse Analysis. Findings from the study suggest that state actors censor Nigeria’s digital sphere through Wise Intelligence Technology. The thesis argues that without clearly defined data protection laws, the use of social media (as a platform through which to critique the state), becomes the means for gathering intelligence and enacting punitive justice over dissenting social actors. The study concludes by asserting that the lack of clearly defined data protection laws contributes to the regulation of freedom of speech in Nigeria.