Nigeria Twitter ban – Africa Tech Digest

Again, Nigerians have been promised the lifting of the four-month-long Twitter ban. After the last promise in August of ‘a few days’ given by the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, President Muhammadu Buhari, in his Independence Day speech, today mentioned that the ban would be lifted conditionally based on the fulfilment of some obligations by the social media giant. Recall that in early June 2021, the Nigerian government indefinitely suspended Twitter after the platform removed a Tweet by the president for violating its rules. An infringement on citizens’ right to free speech, this move has drawn reactions from human rights advocacy groups across the country. Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), for instance, filed an appeal at the ECOWAS court in Abuja asking...

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has said the suspension of the operations of Twitter in the country will end only if the company meets certain conditions, such as the setting up of a local unit and payment of taxes. Buhari listed these conditions during a broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 61st Independence anniversary on Friday, October 1. The Nigerian government suspended Twitter’s operations in June, following the social media platform’s decision to delete a tweet by Buhari, which it said breached the site’s rules. The state’s decision to ban Twitter triggered widespread criticism as online-based businesses recorded huge losses; lawsuits; and national assembly hearings meant to probe the circumstances leading to the ban. According to the president, a committee constituted t...