Nigeria to suspend Twitter ‘indefinitely’

Nigeria’s government is suspending Twitter operations in the country “indefinitely”, the country’s information minister has announced.

The ban is due to “the persistent use of the platform for activities… capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”, a statement said.

Twitter said the announcement on Friday was “deeply concerning”.

It comes just days after a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari was removed for breaching the site’s rules.

The statement from the Nigerian government did not mention the row over the removed tweet.

But Information Minister Lai Mohammed previously criticised the US social media giant’s decision to take it down, calling it “double standards”.

The site removed a tweet sent by Nigeria’s 78-year-old president on 1 June. It referred to the 1967-70 Nigerian Civil War and to treating “those misbehaving today” in “the language they will understand”.

A Twitter spokesperson said at the time that the post “was in violation of the Twitter Rules”.

And in a statement on Friday, the company – which announced its new African headquarters would be based in neighbouring Ghana last month – has said it was “investigating and will provide updates when we know more” about the Nigerian ban. Twitter was still working in Nigeria on Friday evening.

The government gave no details on how the ban would work in practice, or any explanation of how Twitter had undermined Nigeria’s corporate existence.

Its statement, which was released on Twitter, also revealed that the national broadcasting regulator, NBC, has been told to start “the process of licensing all OTT [internet streaming services] and social media operations in Nigeria”.

Osai Ojigho, director of Amnesty International Nigeria, condemned the announcement.

“This action is clearly inconsistent and incompatible with Nigeria’s international obligations. We are calling on the Nigerian authorities to immediately reverse the unlawful suspension and other plans to gag the media, repress civic space, and undermine Nigerians’ human rights.”

Analysis by Nduka Orjinmo, BBC News, Abuja

The Nigerian government has toyed with the idea of regulating social media in the country, and this administration has been obsessed with the idea since it came into office in 2015. Deleting the president’s tweet, however, was seen as the final straw.

But it was the role Twitter played in the #EndSars anti-police brutality protests which shook Nigeria last year that truly sealed its fate.

The demonstrations were mostly organised on the platform and the company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, made donations to one of the leading groups of organisers. A special emoji was also created for the protests.

Twitter helped give Nigeria’s many youths a voice. But in the eyes of the government, the company’s role in galvanising the country’s young population was a line crossed.

Yet the government appears not to have reckoned with the ingenuity of #EndSars protesters. People are already downloading VPNs to bypass the block when it happens.

bbc.com