LAGOS – The Nigerian government has lifted its seven-month nationwide ban on Twitter.
The ban was introduced on the 8th of June last year, in response to the social media company’s decision to delete a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari that appeared to threaten violence against separatist protesters.
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“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War,” Buhari, a former military dictator who was democratically elected in 2015, wrote. “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”
Twitter said the post was removed for violating the company’s “abusive behaviour policy.”
In a statement yesterday, the director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency Engagement, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, said that the decision to lift the suspension came after “Twitter agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history.”
Abdullahi said that Twitter had agreed to a number of still vague conditions, including the “appointment of a designated country representative to interface with Nigerian authorities,” the establishment of “a legal entity in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2022,” and a promise by Twitter “to comply with applicable tax obligations.”
Twitter is yet to say publicly whether it has agreed to any of these terms – but in a tweet, the social media company welcomed the lifting of the suspension and promised that they remained “deeply committed to Nigeria.”
