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Nigeria has seemed to be reversing Twitter ban, calling it “temporary” after diplomats condemned the move and activists said it was linked to the government’s anger at the company after protests against police brutality ravaged the country last year through the tag “#EndSARS”.
Telecom operators closed Nigerian access to Twitter on Saturday by government order after the company has deleted a post by President Muhammadu Buhari for violating his abusive speech policies. The siege of Buhari, which appeared to threaten to crack down on separatists in southeastern Nigeria, was removed on Wednesday.
“There has been a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and false news spread through it have had violent real-world consequences,” said Garba Shehu, a spokesman for Buhari. “Meanwhile, the company has escaped accountability.”
The government, which has tried to increasingly regularize social media, has blamed the growing violence in the south-east of the secessionist group of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra. Shehu said the tweet deleted from Buhari “simply reiterated that his strength should be met with force.”
“Major technology companies must fulfill their responsibilities,” Shehu said, without specifying when Twitter’s “temporary suspension” would end.
The episode is just the latest example of growing tensions between social media companies and political leaders. Twitter suspended former U.S. President Donald Trump in January and last week Facebook said it would stay Trump suspended for at least two years.
Buhari, 78, has long been accused of living in the past, especially when the former general ruled Nigeria as a military dictator in the early 1980s and press freedoms were curtailed.
Nigeria Attorney General Abubakar Malami said on Saturday that he would prosecute violators of the Twitter ban. But on Sunday, many Nigerians circumvented the ban by using VPN and posted messages with the hashtag #KeepItOn.
Local activists said the Twitter episode is just the latest example of crawling government authoritarianism. They linked it to last year’s police brutality protests, when Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted his support using the hashtag #EndSARS.
“Since EndSARS, the government has been uncomfortable with Twitter, so that’s it [come to a] with the removal of President Buhari’s tweet, “said Idayat Hassan, director of the Abuja-based Center for Democracy and Development.” This government is not good at criticism, nor does it understand the youth and power of Abuja. the social networks”.
The Twitter ban is “only part of the constant attack on civic space and Nigeria’s full descent into authoritarianism,” Hassan added.
The move to EndSARS, which refers to Nigeria’s special anti-theft squad, has been largely dormant since a violent crackdown on the Lekki toll gate in Lagos last October, when soldiers opened fire on peaceful protesters.
The Twitter ban is about EndSARS, where the country’s leadership felt despised by the way young people showed good government as opposed to the bad leadership they have. [shown] all these years, ”said Rinu Oduala, a 22-year-old activist.
Twitter is only used by a small percentage of Nigerians, but is popular among activists, journalists and politicians. The company said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned” by the ban and that it “would work to restore access to all those Nigerians who trust Twitter.”
Diplomats from the EU, the UK, Ireland, Norway and Canada criticized the measure in a joint statement. The U.S. embassy in Nigeria added that the ban “undermines the ability of Nigerians to exercise” and “sends a deficient message to its citizens, investors and businesses.”
“The road to a safer Nigeria lies in more communication, not less, along with concerted efforts towards unity, peace and prosperity,” the embassy said in a statement.
Ayisha Osori, head of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, said it was “alarming” that telecom operators, including Airtel and MTN, had also implemented the policy immediately without a court order. She said the ban reflected the way authority has long been exercised in the country.
“We would not be here if there was more than one way of power and power over people” in Nigeria, he said. “But because in Nigeria power must always be exercised harshly: we are here.”
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