Federal Government Suspends Twitter’s Operations in Nigeria
- The federal government says it is suspending the activities of Twitter in Nigeria indefinitely in a statement released
- The statement signed by the minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, accused Twitter of bias
- Twitter recently took down a tweet and a video shared from the pages of President Muhammadu Buhari and the presidency
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FCT, Abuja - 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, June 4.
The minister cited the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence.
Source: Twitter
The terse statement read:
“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 (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.”
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Briefly News had earlier reported that former US president Donald Trump has had his 'indefinite ban on Facebook reduced to two years. He was banned from several social media platforms after the deadly attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
The two-year ban is the maximum punishment for violating Facebook's terms of service and has been backdated to start from 7 January 2021, the day after the protests took place.
In other news, Parler, an alternative social media platform favoured by conservatives and pro-Trump supporters, has been booted out of the Google Play Store, Apple Play Store and other downloading sites following mounting criticism.
The site of the app is also no longer available in what suggested that it has been kicked off the internet amid pressure from the public and Amazon employees.
According to CNN, Google, Amazon and Apple removed the app from the platform on Sunday, January 10, following a whirlpool of the controversy generated by the alternative app.
Since the unfortunate attacks on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, January 6, loyalists and supporters of embattled United States president Donald Trump have been using the app to create dangerous dissents.
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Source: Briefly News
Stefan Mack (Editor) Stefan Mack is an English and history teacher who has broadened his horizons with journalism. He enjoys experiencing the human condition through the world's media. Stefan keeps Briefly News' readers entertained during the weekend. He graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2010 with a Bachelor of Education (BEd), majoring in History and English. Stefan has been writing for Briefly News for a number of years and has covered mainstream to human interest articles.
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
