The federal government says it has suspended the operations of microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria. Lai Mohammed,
The federal government says it has suspended the operations of microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
Lai Mohammed, minister of information, announced the suspension in a statement issued on Friday.
The suspension of the social networking service was also shared on the Twitter handle of the federal ministry of information.
Lai Mohammed cited “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
However, the platform is still active within Nigeria.
The suspension comes days after Twitter deleted a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari’s official account. The tweet had referenced the Nigerian civil war as the President threatened to treat Nigerians “misbehaving” in “the language they understand”.
It sparked reactions from many Nigerians who interpreted the statement as a threat to commit human rights violations.
Buhari made the threat after receiving security reports from the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on the series of recent attacks on INEC facilities nationwide.
“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigeria Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” the tweet said.
A video of Buhari making the remark was also deleted by Twitter from the official Presidency account on Thursday night.
“This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules. Learn more,” Twitter said.
Reacting to the tweet deletion, Minister Mohammed had held a press conference on Wednesday at the State House in Abuja.
He accused Twitter of being impartial in its curation and said the social media firm’s activities were suspicious.
“We have a country to rule and we will do so to the best of our ability. Twitter’s mission in Nigeria is very suspect, they have an agenda,” he said.
“The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very suspicious. Has Twitter deleted the violent tweets that Nnamdi Kanu has been sending? Has it? The same Twitter during the ENDSARS protests that were funding ENDSARS protesters, it was the first to close the account of the former president of the US, Trump.
“And you see when people were burning police stations and killing policemen in Nigeria during ENDSARS, for Twitter, it was about the right to protest. But when a similar thing happened on the Capitol, it became insurrection.”
He said Twitter had displayed bias during the #EndSARS protest which led to the looting and destruction of government and private property.
Meanwhile, Channels TV is reporting that the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.
