The federal government of Nigeria has given Twitter a condition to lift the indefinite suspension of its operations in Nigeria cyberspace.
This was announced by the minister of foreign affairs; Geoffrey Onyeama on Monday at a meeting with some envoys from UK, US and some other countries. He stated that Twitter’s operations in Nigeria will be restored only if the platform can be used “responsibly.”
Asked when the ban will be lifted, Onyeama said there is no definite timeline for that, but added: “The condition would be responsible use of the social media and that really has to be it.”
“We are not saying that Twitter is threatening the country or any such thing; why we have taken this measure is to stop them to be used as platforms for destabilisation and facilitation of criminality or encouragement of criminalities,” he also said.
Recall that Twitter had deleted a controversial civil war post by the Nigerian President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
Consequently, the Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension of Twitter, citing the “persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”.
Though mobile operators have blocked their customers in the country from using Twitter, many Nigerians have switched to the use of Virtual Private Networks to bypass the blockage.
More details to come…
