The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has launched a new digital platform, PAWSOM-Monitor, to track data privacy violations, website disruptions and social media restrictions during elections.
SolaceBase reports that the CITAD’s Executive Director, Dr. Y. Z. Yau, disclosed this on Friday during a media briefing in Kano, saying the platform would be piloted during the Osun State governorship election scheduled for August 15, 2026, ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Yau said the initiative was designed to promote a level playing field for political parties and candidates by monitoring their access to digital platforms and ensuring that personal data was not unlawfully used for political campaigns.
He explained that equal access to media, public digital infrastructure and the internet was an important component of a credible electoral process, particularly as political campaigns increasingly depend on digital platforms.
“Because we are increasingly moving into an AI-dependent environment, personal data of individuals is a critical resource that must be protected,” Yau said.
According to him, organisations holding citizens’ personal information, including telephone numbers, email addresses and home addresses, are expected to handle such data in accordance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act.
He said personal data that individuals might consider insignificant had become a valuable resource for political campaigns, noting that unsolicited text messages and emails received by citizens could indicate that their personal information had been accessed or shared without proper consent.
Yau said previous elections had largely overlooked data protection violations because Nigeria did not have a comprehensive data protection law until recently.
He explained that the new data protection framework had created an institutional mechanism for protecting citizens’ personal information and regulating how organisations collect, store and share such data.
The CITAD executive director warned that political parties with unauthorised access to data held by public or private organisations could gain an unfair advantage over other parties and candidates.
“It’s not only a breach of the data protection law, but it’s also undoing the equal access level playing field for the political parties,” he said.
He added that the organisation would therefore monitor whether government agencies and other data-holding institutions unlawfully provide citizens’ information to political actors during election campaigns.
Yau identified another area of concern as restrictions on political parties’ access to public digital infrastructure, particularly websites and social media platforms.
He said political parties and candidates increasingly rely on websites and social media platforms to communicate campaign messages, adding that deliberate disruptions could prevent them from reaching voters.
According to him, websites could be disrupted through deliberate blocking or by overwhelming them with multiple requests, while social media accounts could also be suspended or restricted.
“We will be also monitoring the websites of political parties and candidates as well as their own social media handles to see instances in which political parties either deny their own website, either is blocked or is somehow restricted from performing the way it would perform,” he said.
Yau said PAWSOM-Monitor had been developed with artificial intelligence agents capable of analysing political party websites and social media accounts and identifying possible disruptions or restrictions.
He explained that the platform would also allow members of the public to report instances of unsolicited political messages, particularly where recipients suspect that their personal information had been obtained or used without their consent.
The platform, he said, would help CITAD determine whether Nigeria’s data protection laws were being observed during elections and document evidence of possible violations.
“The whole essence of it is that at the end of the day we should be able to say that in these elections that the data protection law has been observed and no breaches have occurred, or that the law has been breached and these are the evidence that we have captured,” Yau said.
He, however, noted that identified violations would not necessarily lead to the cancellation of an election because existing electoral laws had not provided for such an outcome.
Rather, he said the findings would contribute to discussions on strengthening Nigeria’s electoral laws, particularly in relation to data privacy, digital rights and the protection of political opposition during campaigns.
Yau said the findings from the monitoring exercise would be incorporated into recommendations for future reviews of the Electoral Act.
He disclosed that the pilot exercise would begin with the Osun State governorship election, with CITAD monitoring the digital platforms of political parties contesting the election from Friday until the election.
“We are going to start with a pilot. There is going to be a governorship election in Osun State on the 15th of this month.
“And so from today until next Friday, that’s one week, we will be monitoring the platforms of all the political parties that are contesting the Osun State governorship election,” he said.
He noted that while many individual candidates did not have dedicated websites, the political parties contesting the election had websites that could be monitored for digital disruptions and possible data protection violations.
During a demonstration of the platform, CITAD officials showed how users could submit websites or social media handles for analysis.
The platform also provides a monitoring interface through which websites of political parties can be tracked, with an artificial intelligence system expected to flag potential problems.
Officials explained that websites operating normally would be displayed as active, while those where the system detected possible disruptions could be flagged for further investigation.
A preliminary analysis of the websites of nine political parties participating in the Osun governorship election was also presented during the briefing.
The analysis showed varying statuses among the websites, with some marked as clear while others were flagged as requiring further action.
The officials clarified that the initial assessment would not necessarily determine whether a problem was caused deliberately or resulted from a technical issue involving a website administrator or hosting company.
They said further analysis would provide more details on the nature and possible source of any disruption detected.
Responding to a question on how CITAD would identify the authentic social media accounts of candidates amid the proliferation of fake and unofficial accounts, Yau said the organisation would focus on official accounts recognised and used by the candidates themselves.
He recalled that an earlier study conducted by CITAD had found numerous Facebook pages bearing the names of prominent politicians, many of which were not officially operated by the politicians.
“Four years ago, we did the research. We found, for instance, Ganduje had 126 Facebook pages. El-Rufai had 150-something. Many of these are not official pages,” he said.
Yau said monitoring unofficial accounts could create difficulties because some could be established by supporters, opponents or individuals seeking to damage the reputation of a candidate.
He warned that fake accounts could be used to disseminate hate speech, unlawful content or messages capable of creating legal problems for political candidates.
He said the monitoring exercise would therefore concentrate primarily on verified or officially recognised social media handles of candidates and political parties.
CITAD said the pilot exercise would provide useful evidence on the state of digital rights and data protection during elections and help shape recommendations for improving the transparency, fairness and credibility of Nigeria’s future electoral processes.
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