Nigerian government suspends Twitter service in the country

The Nigerian government has announced an indefinite suspension of Twitter activity within the country.

The reason is this. In response to a Nigerian separatist attack on government facilities, President Muhammad Buhari posted a tweet suggesting armed retaliation, and Twitter, like former US President Trump, deleted the tweet.

The day after announcing the indefinite suspension of Twitter, Nigeria said it had instructed the Prosecutor’s Office to immediately prosecute for violating the Twitter ban in the country. Violators who use Twitter through VPNs and other means, for example, are subject to penalties, whether individuals or legal entities.

The Nigerian government has also criticized Twitter for promoting religion and racism, exclusivism and the spread of misinformation, which could lead to national division.

Meanwhile, Twitter, of course, has expressed deep concern about the move, and several human rights groups are vehemently protesting that it will limit freedom of expression in Nigeria. This issue shows the difficulty between Twitter’s policies and compliance with laws and regulations. Twitter often finds itself in a situation where the right thing to do on a case-by-case basis, such as the need to remove tweets that violate policies, while avoiding censorship and potential privacy breaches. Prior to this Nigerian issue, the use of Twitter was used in protests against violence by police commandos that occurred in October last year, and as the protests spread, the government’s use of Twitter drew a lot of antipathy from the government. Related information can be found here.