FG suspends Twitter’s operations in Nigeria indefinitely

The federal government has announced the suspension of the operations of Twitter, the microblogging and social networking service, in Nigeria.

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, announced the “indefinite” suspension in a statement issued on Friday by Segun Adeyemi, his spokesman.

According to the statement, the minister cited “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”.

“The Minister said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria,” Adeyemi added.

However, as of the time of this report, the platform is still active within Nigeria.

Twitter’s suspension by the federal government comes days after a post by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 1967 civil war was deleted by the microblogging platform.

In a post on Twitter on Tuesday, the president had condemned the attacks on government facilities in the country, and citing a reference to the civil war experience, threatened to treat those “bent on destroying” Nigeria “through insurrection” in “a language they understand”.

Defending Buhari, the information minister had condemned the deletion of the president’s post and accused Twitter of “double standard”.

Mohammed had also added that the mission of the social networking service as it concerns Nigeria is “suspect”.