Last Updated on June 4, 2021
The West African nation of Nigeria has banned Twitter following Twitter’s censorship of a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In an act of censorship, Twitter deleted a tweet where Buhari called for strong action against a militant separatist organization advocating for an independent state in the region of Biafra. “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Biafra war,” Buhari wrote on Twitter. “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”
The tweet followed a wave of attacks on police stations by the Eastern Security Network (ESN), a radical Biafran terrorist group. The ESN had been responsible for dozens of deaths of police officers and government officials. Following Twitter’s censorship of Buhari, the Nigerian government struck back by banned the globalist social media platform from their country altogether.
In a press release issued on Twitter, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said that he had chosen to take action against Twitter because of “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”, such as promoting violent separatists.
PRESS RELEASE
FG Suspends @Twitter Operations in Nigeria pic.twitter.com/7z5BQ0Mi3U
— Fed Min of Info & Cu (@FMICNigeria) June 4, 2021
The ban is set to be permanent, according to the statement. “The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria,” the press release states.
Nigeria will also commence a licensing system to make sure that only genuine social media platforms, that do not defend terrorism, are operating there. “The Minister said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting l Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria,” the press release adds. (READ MORE: Biden Threatens Sanctions Against Nigeria For Not Embracing ‘LGBTQI+’ Agenda)
Nigeria is not the only African country to take action against Twitter for interference in domestic politics. Previously, Uganda also banned Twitter, after the company attempted to influence the outcome of the country’s presidential election. In Asia, Myanmar has banned Twitter, while police raided Twitter’s headquarters in India.
