The Nigerian government announced this Wednesday (12) that it will suspend, from midnight, the country’s Twitter ban. Since June, Nigeria’s telecom companies have been barred from providing access to the social network, after a post made by President Muhammadu Buhari was deleted by the platform.
In the text in question, the Nigerian leader threatened separatist groups, writing: “Those of us who have been in the war will treat them in the language they understand.” Buhari was referring to Nigeria’s civil war (1967-70), or Biafra War, which left around 1 million dead in the country, in which he himself fought.
Twitter deleted the post, citing its policies against abusive content, which led to government retaliation. Information Minister Lai Mohammed said at the time that the decision was made because of the “persistent use of the platform for activities that could undermine the existence of Nigeria”.
The measure, considered unprecedented — at least in countries considered to be democracies, even if imperfect — reached an estimated number of 20 million tweeters.
On Wednesday, the director general of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, said in a statement that Buhari had given approval to lift the lockdown. “Twitter has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgment of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history upon which such legislation is built,” he said.
Also according to him, the company will work with the government and civil society “to develop a code of conduct aligned with the best global practices, applicable in almost all developed countries”. In addition, according to the Reuters news agency, Twitter has agreed to open a local office and comply with the country’s tax obligations.
Since the ban was announced, some Nigerians have been able to post posts on the social network, connecting to VPN services that give access to private servers outside the country. These people, however, run the risk of being punished by the government.
The decision to block Twitter followed a broader intention by the Nigerian government to regulate social media in the country. The origin of this desire would be in the great protests of 2020 against police brutality, which gained strength amid campaigns organized by activists on social networks.
After the blockade, entities filed a lawsuit in the judicial court of the Economic Community of West African States, a regional body that has Nigeria as a member, to reverse the decision. In June, the court, in its turn, stopped the authorities from prosecuting people for entering the network, but nothing inhibited the government from maintaining its determination.
The decision by Buhari, a retired army general, has revived questions about his commitment to democracy. In 1983, he was one of the leaders of a military coup in the African country, and he ruled until 1985.
In 2015, claiming to have converted to democracy, he was elected president, obtaining a second term in 2019. In recent years, however, the leader has adopted authoritarian practices, such as the repression of the 2020 protests, which, according to a survey released in October by Amnesty International, left 56 dead.
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