The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of microblogging platform Twitter, in Nigeria.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension on Friday in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Segun Adeyemi.
TheFact Nigeria reports that the suspension is coming days after twitter deleted a post by the President Muhammadu Buhari where he warned those perpetrating mayhem especially in the South-East that his government would shock them.
According to the President’s tweet: “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”
According to twitter, “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules”.
Reacting to the development, on Wednesday the minister of information accused Twitter of double standards.
Consequently, Lai Mohammed said the Buhari led administration has suspended the activities of Twitter in the country.
According to the statement: “The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
“The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday,citing 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 to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.”
