Twitter blocked in Nigeria after deleting a tweet by its president

Twitter is suspended “indefinitely” in Nigeria, “for the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence,” according to a statement (threaded on Twitter) from the country’s minister of information and culture. The move comes days after the platform removed a threatening tweet by president Muhammadu Buhari which Twitter said violated its “abusive behavior” policy.

On Saturday, the office of Nigeria’s attorney general and ministry of justice said it would arrest and prosecute anyone who tried to get around the block, CNN reported, and directed government agencies to cooperate with prosecutors “to ensure the speedy prosecution of offenders without any further delay.” Several news reports said people within Nigeria were using VPNs to try to avoid the ban and continue using Twitter.

The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.

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