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 by his office in Abuja citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
According to a statement signed by the Minister of Information and Culture’s spokesperson, Segun Adeyemi he said that 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.
Recalled that on Tuesday Twitter had deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweets for violating its rules.
The President had said tweeted: “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War.
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“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,’’ the president stated via his twitter page.
The Federal government had also accused theReacting to the development, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, accused Twitter of double standard, saying twitter had deliberately ignored inciting tweets by the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu and his cohorts.
The minister also accused Twitter of biases it did during the ENDSARS protest where government and private property were looted and set on fire, taming its human rights, while “it finds Buhari’s tweet offensive’’.
According to him, Twitter’s role is suspect and Nigeria will not be fooled.
He said: “Twitter may have its own rules; it’s not the universal rule. If Mr President, anywhere in the world feels very bad and concern 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 centres, 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.
