The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has announced that the directive to suspend the operations of Twitter in Nigeria came from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
This was disclosed in a statement by the President of ALTON, Mr Gbenga Adebayo, on Saturday in Lagos, citing a formal instruction from the Nigerian Government to suspend Twitter’s operations.
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What ALTON is saying about the Twitter ban
The press statement from ALTON titled “Order to Suspend access to Twitter” reads thus:
“We, the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) wish to confirm that our members have received formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator to suspend access to Twitter.
ALTON has conducted a robust assessment of the directive in accordance with internationally accepted principles. Based on national interest provisions in the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, and within the licence terms under which the industry operates; our members have acted in compliance with the directives of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator.
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We will continue to engage all the relevant authorities and stakeholders and will act as may be further directed by the NCC.
We remain committed to supporting the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and upholding the rights of citizens.
As an industry, we endorse the position of the United Nations that the rights held by people offline must also be protected online. This includes respecting and protecting the rights of all people to communicate, to share information freely and responsibly, and to enjoy privacy and security regarding their data and their use of digital communications.”
The statement was jointly signed by the Chairman, and Executive Secretary of the Association, Gbenga Adebayo and Gbolahan Awonuga.
In case you missed it
Nairametrics reported yesterday that the Federal Government had indefinitely suspended in Nigeria, the operations of Twitter, the microblogging and social networking platform.