The Federal Government on Friday said it has
suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social
networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
The Minister
of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
announced the suspension in a statement issued by his office in Abuja.
The
statement, signed by Ministry spokesperson, Segun Adeyemi, cited the persistent
use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s
corporate existence.
According to
the statement, the Minister said 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.
It is not yet
clear how the suspension will work but the Twitter website was still accessible
from Lagos as of Friday afternoon.
‘Civil War’
Tweet
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 threated 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.
Former
presidential candidate Kingsley Moghalu said Buhari’s threat “is not the kind
of word he should say as the president.”
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,” the tweet said.
“Those of us
in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the
language they understand.”
A video of
Buhari making the remark was also deleted by Twitter from the official
Presidency account on Thursday.
“This Tweet is no longer available because it violated
the Twitter Rules. Learn more,”
Twitter said.
Twitter
activities ‘suspicious’
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.
The minister
asked what rule President Buhari had violated to warrant his tweet to be
deleted.
“Twitter may
have its own rules, it’s not the universal rule,” he said. “If Mr. President,
anywhere in the world feels very bad and concerned about a situation, he is
free to express such views. Now, we should stop comparing apples with oranges.
“If an
organisation is proscribed, it is different from any other which is not
proscribed. Two, any organisation that gives directives to its members, to
attack police stations, to kill policemen, to attack correctional centers, to
kill warders, and you are now saying that Mr. President does not have the right
to express his dismay and anger about that?
“We are the
ones guilty of double standards. I don’t see anywhere in the world where an
organisation, a person will stay somewhere outside Nigeria and will direct his
members to attack the symbols of authority, the police, the military,
especially when that organisation has been proscribed. By whatever name,
you can’t justify giving orders to kill policemen or to kill anybody you do not
agree with.”
Source: channelstv.com
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