The government of Nigeria has suspended the operations of Twitter within the country.
The decision comes days after Twitter “removed a post from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists,” Reuters reports.
The new statement, made by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, could see the government preventing Nigerians from using Twitter altogether.
Below is the full statement from Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Information and Culture:
The Federal Government 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 in Abuja on Friday, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
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.
A couple of days ago, Twitter deleted a post from President Buhari’s official account that “referred to the 1967-70 Nigerian Civil War and to treating ‘those misbehaving today’ in ‘the language they will understand,’” BBC reports.
According to the BBC, the Nigerian government has toyed with the idea of regulating social media in the country. 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.
