Deborah: Victim of WhatsApp rule violators | TheCable

Parents, students, and indeed anyone with a conscience is still shocked at the killing of Deborah Yakubu in Sokoto over allegations of blasphemy. The brutal termination of the life of a promising young Nigerian in a school, will again pass with lamentations and condemnations as has become the norm, but most likely, without the consolation that justice would be served. As we flip over this page and move on, we would most likely overlook the real problem that led to this tragedy. The small cause, the little speck, that has produced a big effect, an explosion and other unintended consequences. In spite of the curfew imposed by the Sokoto State government, many residents and their properties and businesses – all of which had nothing to do with the alleged blasphemy – were attacked with a potential for escalation well beyond the borders of the Caliphate. All of these troubles derived from annoying indiscretions and abuse of social media platforms. Practically every member of a WhatsApp group must have come across a set of rules crafted by an unknown Samaritan on what to and what not to post in a group chat. Some groups even evolve their own domesticated set of…
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