The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has launched a digital monitoring platform, PAWSOM-Monitor, to track privacy violations, website disruptions and social media restrictions during elections.
The platform will be piloted during the Osun State Governorship Election scheduled for August 15, according to CITAD Executive Director, Engr. Y.Z. Yau.
Yau disclosed this during a press briefing on the initiative, explaining that PAWSOM-Monitor was developed to assess the digital environment and determine whether political parties and candidates enjoy equal access to online platforms during election campaigns.
He said the platform uses artificial intelligence-trained agents to analyse submitted websites and social media handles and provide information on their operational status.
“For instance, if I put the website of a political party, it will tell me whether that site is free, has not been interrupted, or has been subjected to some interruptions,” Yau said.
According to him, PAWSOM-Monitor will also monitor social media platforms, including X and Meta, to determine whether accounts belonging to political parties or candidates have been suspended, restricted or otherwise disrupted.
Yau said another component of the platform would allow members of the public to report unsolicited political campaign messages, particularly where their personal information was used without consent.
He explained that the monitoring exercise would help determine whether political actors obtained telephone numbers and other personal data lawfully before using them for campaign purposes.
“The whole essence of it is that at the end of the day, we should be able to say that in these elections, the data protection law has been observed and no breaches have occurred,” he said.
Yau added that where violations are detected, PAWSOM-Monitor would document and preserve evidence of such breaches to support broader discussions on data protection and digital rights within Nigeria’s electoral process.
He, however, clarified that the identification of digital or data protection violations would not automatically lead to the cancellation of an election because existing electoral laws do not provide for such a measure.
Instead, he said the findings would inform recommendations for strengthening Nigeria’s electoral laws, particularly provisions relating to personal data protection and the prevention of digital restrictions against political opponents.
The CITAD executive director said the platform would also assess whether political parties themselves comply with data protection requirements in the collection, processing and use of personal information during election campaigns.
He said CITAD would initially monitor the websites and social media accounts of political parties participating in the Osun governorship election, describing the exercise as a pilot project ahead of the 2027 general elections.