The Federal Government Of Nigeria Suspends Twitter Operations Following The Deletion Of Buhari Tweets
FG Suspends Twitter Operations Following the Deletion of Buhari's Tweets
The Federal Government has banned Twitter from operating in Nigeria, following the company's removal of President Muhammad Buhari's tweets and videos earlier this week.
It stated that the decision to suspend the social networking service across the country was made after it became clear that the platform was being used to malign the government.
As gathered, the apex government acted after the president's tweet and videos about Nigeria's Civil War were removed from his official Twitter handle after the microblogging company received petitions from other users requesting that the comment and videos be deleted due to the negative impact they were having on them.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension of operations, alleging that the foreign firm allowed its platform to be used for activities capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence.
Statement of Minister of Information and Culture
Mohammed stressed in a statement released on Friday by Special Assistant to the President on Media Segun Adeyemi, which was also posted on the government's Twitter account, that the government, which had been appealing to foreign investors to establish offices in Nigeria, made the decision primarily to protect the country's sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the Minister announced that the central government has directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately begin licensing all online and social media operations in the country.
As previously stated, the president wrote in a series of tweets that "many of those behaving badly today are too young to understand the devastation and loss of life that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War." Those of us who have been in the fields for 30 months and have lived through the war will speak their language”.
Earlier, after the tweets were deleted, Mohammed accused Twitter of being biased, claiming the company applied double standards to domestic issues in Nigeria and urging the company to abstain and remain neutral.
He expressed regret that the company ignored inciting tweets by IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu and his cohorts during the ENDSARS protest but found the president's tweets offensive.
The Decision
“While Twitter may have its own set of rules, they are not universal. If Mr. President, wherever he is in the world, has strong feelings about a situation, he is free to express them. Now is the time to stop making apples-to-oranges comparisons. If an organization is prohibited, it is distinguished from other organizations that are not prohibited.
“Two, any organization that directs its members to attack police stations, to murder police officers, to attack correctional centers, to murder warders, and you are now claiming that Mr. President lacks the right to express his outrage and outrage? We are the ones who are guilty of hypocrisy.
“I see no place in the world where an organization, a person, would stay outside Nigeria and direct his members to attack symbols of authority, the police, or the military, even more so when the organization is proscribed. By whatever name, you cannot justify giving orders to kill police officers or anyone else with whom you disagree,” he stated.
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