Nigeria's government has suspended Twitter
Nigeria’s Federal Government has said that it has indefinitely suspended Twitter in the country. This comes two days after the social media platform led by Jack Dorsey deleted a Twitter post by Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari that spoke about punishing regional secessionists in the southeast of the West African country.
Reports coming out of Nigeria have also confirmed that the Twitter ban has been enforced with only people using VPN services able to access the social media platform.
"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." reads a statement by Segun Adeyemi, Special Assistant To The President (Media), Nigeria's Office of the Minister of Information and Culture.
This is not the first time that Nigeria, in recent years, has been involved in an incident related to social media censorship.
