The Executive Director of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Malam Y.Z. Ya’u, has drawn attention to the growing control of global social media platforms like Facebook (Meta) and X (formerly Twitter), describing them as monopolies with serious implications for transparency, accountability, and users’ data rights.
Ya’u made the remarks in Kano on Wednesday while delivering a public lecture titled “Monopolies to Fediverse: A Peep into an Alternative Social Media Space.” He used the occasion to call for the adoption of alternative online platforms, particularly those rooted in decentralization and community control.
He pointed out that although users are utilizing social media for various positive activities — including education, business, and civic engagement — two tech giants have come to dominate the space.
“Facebook and X have dominated the digital space and have become real global monopolies. Between 2005 and 2025, Facebook acquired over 100 startup tech companies while X swallowed more than 70,” he said.
Ya’u also argued that the platforms operate without oversight and in a non-transparent manner. “Unlike open-source software, no one has access to the source codes of these platforms. Their reasoning and decision-making processes are kept hidden from the public,” he said. “The owners of these platforms are accountable to no one but themselves. They are driven solely by profit and often choose which country’s laws to obey or ignore.”
He said this level of control enables the platforms to misuse users’ data and interfere with political processes.
“As we use social media, we deposit metadata about ourselves. That is why today Google and Facebook know more about us than we know ourselves,” he said. “They collect massive amounts of data — often without our consent — and sell it to advertisers, political manipulators, AI developers, and others. This violates all data protection norms.”
On the increasing role of Artificial Intelligence, Ya’u noted that the situation could worsen the unconsented collection of data from users. “AI requires intimate personal data for training. The more it grows, the more data it needs, and the more invasive it becomes.”
He also accused the platforms of bias and discrimination. “Elon Musk has been known to promote racist and neo-Nazi views and allows his platform to spread such content. Mega tech companies are known to support Israel’s actions in Gaza while suppressing pro-Palestine voices. On Facebook, anyone expressing support for Palestine is treated like a terrorist and banned,” he alleged.
Referring to figures from the Sada Social Center for Digital Rights, Ya’u said, “Over 1,247 digital violations targeting Palestinians were documented in June 2025 alone, reflecting an intensifying wave of online suppression.”
He further explained that the centralized nature of these platforms gives them full control over who is allowed to speak.
“Meta runs over 1 billion servers globally and X operates about half that number. Since they control their own servers, they can decide who gets to speak and who is banned,” he said. “This centralization also makes it easy for governments to shut down platforms in their countries.”
Ya’u said the inability of users on different platforms to interact with one another is another major shortcoming. “If you’re on Twitter, someone on Facebook can’t see or share your posts. You have to create separate accounts on each,” he said.
As an alternative, he introduced dComms, a new platform CITAD is developing. “We are implementing a version of Fediverse called dComms. It is built on a local hosting model that prioritizes connectivity and community ownership,” he said. “It combines the social networking features of Mastodon with the messaging functionalities of Matrix.”
He acknowledged that such platforms are still small in scale, noting that Mastodon has just around five million users, while others have fewer compared to the billions that platforms like Facebook have.
“Fediverse is not the same as SplitNet. While SplitNet is driven by the politics of internet fragmentation, Fediverse is a move towards a more meaningful, people-centered internet,” he said.
The lecture was attended by academics, civil society actors, journalists, and members of the tech community, many of whom showed interest in the concept of Fediverse as a possible alternative to profit-driven digital spaces.
