The Federal Government of Nigeria said it has no intention of banning Twitter or any other social media company.
This was disclosed in a statement issued via Twitter by Nigeria’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammed on Friday.
He emphasised that the government has no intention of stifling free speech, but will continue to engage with social media companies on best practices that will benefit all parties.
The Government’s position: The Minister stated this in reaction to some of the latest developments at Twitter, which he said the Government is closely monitoring. The statement, seen by Nairametrics, said:
- “We are closely monitoring the evolving developments at Twitter. It has never been our intention to ban any social media platform or stifle free speech. Not at all. What happened in the case of Twitter is well-known to all.
- “We have no intention of banning any social media platform again. But we will also not sit by and allow any platform whatsoever to throw our nation into crisis.
- But we have continued to engage positively with the different social media platforms, including Facebook, Google (owners of YouTube) and Twitter.”
Latest Twitter issues: Recall that some of the developments and issues that have arisen since Elon Musk took over ownership of Twitter have raised concerns as to whether the Nigerian Government might be considering banning the company again. As Nairametrics previously reported, these issues and developments range from new rules for parody accounts, the introduction of paid subscriptions for Twitter Blue, and the mass layoffs that rocked the company and affected employees of Twitter’s Africa Office in Ghana.
In case you missed it: In June 2020, the Nigerian Government banned Twitter after a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari was deleted for violating the platform’s rules. The ban lasted until January this year when the government announced that it has lifted the ban.
