The Nigerian government Saturday said the banning of Twitter in the country is “temporary” and insisted it was not in reaction to President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet being deleted.
The ban was announced on Friday and came into effect on Saturday morning. The government defended its action by citing “persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence” for the ban.
The action attracted widespread condemnations, with the leading opposition party in the country describing it as “a vexatious, condemnable and barbaric move to muzzle Nigerians”.
But a spokesman to President Muhammadu Buhari insisted on Saturday that the action was necessary. It said Twitter and other major tech companies must be held accountable for what goes on their platforms.
“There has been a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real-world violent consequences,” Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement. A
“All the while, the company has escaped accountability. Nevertheless, the removal of President Buhari’s tweet was disappointing. The censoring seemed based on a misunderstanding of the challenges Nigeria faces today.
“The President in his address at the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA in 2019 said, “the world was shocked and startled by the massacre in New Zealand by a lone gunman taking the lives of 50 worshippers.”
“This and similar crimes which have been fueled by social media networks risk seeping into the fabric of an emerging digital culture.
“Major tech companies must be alive to their responsibilities. They cannot be allowed to continue to facilitate the spread of religious, racist, xenophobic and false messages capable of inciting whole communities against each other, leading to the loss of many lives. This could tear some countries apart.
“President Buhari has therefore been warning against social media’s disruptive and divisive influences and the government’s action is not a knee-jerk reaction to Twitter’s preposterous deletion of his tweet which should have been read in full.
“The tweet was not a threat, but a statement of fact.
“A terrorist organisation (IPOB) poses a significant threat to the safety and security of Nigerian citizens.
“When the President said that they will be treated “in a language they understand,” he merely reiterated that their force shall be met with force. It is a basic principle of security services response the world over.
“This is not the promotion of hate, but a pledge to uphold citizens’ right to freedom from harm. The government cannot be expected to capitulate to terrorists.
“IPOB is proscribed under Nigerian law. Its members murder innocent Nigerians. They kill policemen and set government property on fire. Now, they have amassed a substantial stockpile of weapons and bombs across the country.
“Twitter does not seem to appreciate the national trauma of our country’s civil war. This government shall not allow a recurrence of that tragedy.”