It is exactly four months since the Nigerian Government banned the microblogging site Twitter even as other social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsap, and Instagram experienced downtime for hours on Monday.
The social platforms including the Facebook Messenger service were first reported as not being available from 04:25 pm on Monday, leaving some three billion online users frustrated and unable to connect all over the world. Users visiting the social platforms owned by Mark Zuckerberg are confronted with error messages.
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Chief Technology Officer at Facebook, Mike Schroepfer confirmed the downtime as he tweeted, “Sincere apologies to everyone impacted by outages of Facebook powered services right now. We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible.”
Recall that, on 5 June 2021, the Nigerian government officially put an indefinite ban on Twitter, restricting it from operating in Nigeria. The government cited “persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence,” as a reason for the ban that took effect almost immediately.
The government also directed broadcasters to suspend “patronage” of the platform. It described its further use by the broadcast stations as “unpatriotic.”
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Muhammed announced the ban after, the social media platform deleted tweets made by President Muhammadu Buhari warning the people of the southeast of a potential repeat of the 1967 Biafran Civil War due to the ongoing insurgency in Southeastern Nigeria.
The Minister stated that the ban will be lifted once Twitter submits to local licensing, registration and conditions. “It will be licensed by the broadcasting commission, and must agree not to allow its platform to be used by those who are promoting activities that are inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria”, he said.
Despite nationwide and worldwide condemnation, the Nigerian government stuck to its guns by continuing to restrict the use of the platform. While many Nigerians resort to the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN), all government Twitter handles were ‘shut down’ as government officials resort to the use of other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Efforts were made by both Twitter management and the Nigerian government to resolve the impasse as the Nigerian government revealed that the ban on Twitter will be lifted soon. However, three weeks after Lai Muhammed made the promise to Nigerians, it seems the government is yet to find a lasting solution.
Reports revealed that the government and Twitter are yet to reach an agreement on critical issues which include other issues yet to be sorted out include, including Twitter setting up a local office, paying tax locally, and cooperating with the Nigerian government to regulate content and harmful tweets.
