Abuja:
Nigeria mentioned on Monday it was in discussions with Twitter right after it suspended the US social media giant’s services in the nation, branding its use as “unpatriotic”.
The Twitter suspension has provoked an outcry from the international neighborhood and rights groups who denounced it as a threat to freedom of expression in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria mentioned it was halting the platform’s operations indefinitely on Friday, two days right after Twitter deleted a comment from President Muhammadu Buhari’s account referring to civil unrest that the firm mentioned violated its guidelines.
“There are discussions ongoing with Twitter, we will see how that progresses, so I cannot say for now the duration of the suspension,” Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama mentioned right after a meeting with diplomats on the situation.
“There are conversations, yes, with our partners. We want to use social media for good.”
Twitter has not but commented but mentioned earlier that it was “deeply concerned” by Nigeria’s move and that it would work “to restore access for all”.
The EU, US, Canada and Ireland issued a joint statement criticising the ban saying that the international pandemic was a time when Nigeria necessary to foster dialogue and market facts sharing.
After Monday’s meeting, US Ambassador to Nigeria Mary Beth Leonard mentioned the diplomatic neighborhood stood by its position.
“We recognise that there are issues of responsible use of social media but we remain firm on our position that free access to the ability to express oneself is actually very important,” she told reporters.
Earlier on Monday, the country’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) directed all Television and radio stations to “suspend the patronage of Twitter immediately”.
“Broadcasting stations are hereby advised to de-install twitter handles and desist from using Twitter as a source… of information gathering for news,” NBC’s director Armstrong Idachaba mentioned in a statement.
“It would be unpatriotic for any broadcaster in Nigeria to continue to patronise the suspended Twitter as a source of its information.”
More than 39 million Nigerians have a Twitter account, according to NOI polls, a public opinion and analysis organisation.
The platform has played an crucial part in public discourse in Nigeria, with hashtags #BringBackOurGirls right after Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in 2014, and #EndSARS throughout anti-police brutality protests last year.
Some Nigerian broadcasters are concerned the clampdown on Twitter is element of more common crackdown against the media.
“It is very important we push back and fast, because they could go further. We need to talk to the different media houses and adopt a strong and common answer,” mentioned a social media executive at a big Television station in Nigeria with a number of thousand followers on Twitter, who asked to stay anonymous contemplating the sensitivity of the situation.
“Twitter is a very important platform for us, and it brings a lot of viewers globally.”
Prosecution of offenders
Onyeama insisted on the “responsible use of media” in remarks to reporters right after the meeting.
“We are not saying that Twitter is threatening Nigeria or (anything) like that,” the minister mentioned.
“Why we have taken such a measure is to see whether we can rebalance the media as forces of good, and stop them from being used as platforms for destabilisation and facilitation and encouragement of criminality.”
The government’s suspension came right after Twitter on Wednesday deleted a remark on Buhari’s account in which he referred to the country’s civil war 5 decades ago in a warning about current unrest.
The presidency denied that the Twitter suspension was a response to the removal of that post.
“There has been a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences,” a presidency spokesman Garba Shehu mentioned in a statement.
International human rights groups have also condemned the move, which followed earlier attempts by the government to regulate social media.
“VPN app” was the second most searched trend Saturday on Google in Nigeria, as virtual private networks can allow Twitter customers to bypass the ban.
But Nigeria warned that it would prosecute violators of the Twitter ban.
()