Nigeria’s government announced on Friday it was suspending Twitter operations in the country, saying the platform was being used for activities “capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
The information ministry said the government had “suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service Twitter, in Nigeria” two days after the social media giant deleted a remark on President Muhammadu Buhari’s official account for breaking its regulations.
Twitter was still working in Africa’s most populous country soon after Friday’s statement, which did not give any time for the start of the suspension.
When asked about the decision, ministry special assistant Segun Adeyemi told AFP: “I can’t answer technicalities… operations will be suspended indefinitely.”
The ministry also announced the suspension on its own Twitter account.
Twitter on Wednesday deleted a remark on Buhari’s account for violating its rules, after he referred to the country’s civil war in a warning about recent unrest in the country’s southeast.
The 78-year-old president, a former general, referred to those “misbehaving” in recent violence in the southeast, where officials have blamed separatists for attacks on police and election offices.
Minister of Information Lai Mohammed on Wednesday accused Twitter of ignoring violent messages from a separatist leader and also referred to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s support for the #EndSARS protests last year in Nigeria against police brutality.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here.
Comments
0 comment