{"id":122312,"date":"2025-09-17T19:54:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T18:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=122312"},"modified":"2025-09-17T19:54:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T18:54:28","slug":"sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Oscar Okhifo<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Human rights activist and SaharaReporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta Platforms (owners of Facebook), and X Corp (formerly Twitter) at the Federal High Court in Abuja, over what he described as unconstitutional censorship of his social media accounts.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the suit, filed by his lawyer, Tope Temokun, Sowore is asking the court to restrain the DSS from directing global tech companies to delete his posts, including one in which he called President Bola Tinubu a \u201ccriminal.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThese suits were filed to challenge the unconstitutional censorship initiated by the DSS\/SSS against Sowore\u2019s accounts maintained with Meta and X,\u201d Temokun said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He stressed that the case was not just about his client, but about free expression in Nigeria.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIf state agencies can dictate to global platforms who may speak and what may be said, then no Nigerian is safe. Voices will be silenced at the whim of those in power.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The suit invokes Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, and argues that no security agency has the power to suspend or delete those rights. It also warns Meta and X against becoming complicit in political repression by bowing to \u201cunlawful censorship demands.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sowore\u2019s legal team is seeking declarations that the DSS has no authority to censor Nigerians online and that Meta and X must protect users against unlawful interference.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThis struggle is not about personalities,\u201d the statement added. \u201cIt is about principle. And we shall resist every attempt to turn Nigeria into a digital dictatorship.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The fresh suit comes shortly after the DSS filed a five-count charge against Sowore at the same court, accusing him of defaming President Tinubu in posts on August 25 and 26, 2025.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The charges, signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions at the Ministry of Justice, allege that Sowore\u2019s comments were false, defamatory, and intended to incite unrest, citing the Cybercrimes Amendment Act, 2024.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Exhibits filed include Sowore\u2019s posts on X and Facebook, as well as letters the DSS wrote to both platforms demanding deletion and account deactivation. No judge has yet been assigned to the case, and no date has been fixed for Sowore\u2019s arraignment.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sowore, a former Presidential candidate and longstanding critic of successive Nigerian governments, has vowed not to retract his statements, insisting that his criticism of President Tinubu is part of his constitutional duty to hold leaders accountable.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Oscar Okhifo Human rights activist and SaharaReporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta Platforms (owners of Facebook), and X Corp&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019 - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019 - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Oscar Okhifo Human rights activist and SaharaReporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta Platforms (owners of Facebook), and X Corp&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-17T18:54:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a7be182-b25d-44ec-9636-e96b26350daf.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1096\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"headline\":\"Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-17T18:54:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/\"},\"wordCount\":420,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a7be182-b25d-44ec-9636-e96b26350daf.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/\",\"name\":\"Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019 - Pointblank News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a7be182-b25d-44ec-9636-e96b26350daf.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-17T18:54:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a7be182-b25d-44ec-9636-e96b26350daf.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a7be182-b25d-44ec-9636-e96b26350daf.jpeg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":1096},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\",\"name\":\"Pointblank News\",\"description\":\"Just the news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\",\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Our Reporter\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019 - Pointblank News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019 - Pointblank News","og_description":"By Oscar Okhifo Human rights activist and SaharaReporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta Platforms (owners of Facebook), and X Corp&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/","og_site_name":"Pointblank News","article_published_time":"2025-09-17T18:54:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":1096,"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a7be182-b25d-44ec-9636-e96b26350daf.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Our Reporter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Our Reporter","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/"},"author":{"name":"Our Reporter","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"headline":"Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019","datePublished":"2025-09-17T18:54:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/"},"wordCount":420,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a7be182-b25d-44ec-9636-e96b26350daf.jpeg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/","name":"Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019 - Pointblank News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a7be182-b25d-44ec-9636-e96b26350daf.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-09-17T18:54:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a7be182-b25d-44ec-9636-e96b26350daf.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a7be182-b25d-44ec-9636-e96b26350daf.jpeg","width":1280,"height":1096},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/sowore-takes-dss-meta-x-to-court-seeks-protection-against-digital-dictatorship\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sowore Takes DSS, Meta, X to Court, Seeks Protection Against \u2018Digital Dictatorship\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/","name":"Pointblank News","description":"Just the news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c","name":"Our Reporter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Our Reporter"},"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122317,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122312\/revisions\/122317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}