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Suspension: Twitter seeks high-level talks with FG ― Lai Mohammed

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3 years ago

June 9, 2021

The microblogging social media platform, Twitter, has reached out to the federal government seeking high-level discussion to resolve the suspension of Twitter activities in Nigeria..

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed this while briefing State House corespondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja.

The Minister said he got the message from Twitter on Wednesday morning.

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He insisted that Twitter was suspended because it provided an avenue for people that were threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria.

According to him, the owner of Twitter helped to fund the recent #EndSARS protest while allowing the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to use the platform to call for the killing of policemen.

He said Twitter failed to take down Kanu’s tweets despite repeated requests to do so.

Mohammed listed conditions that must be met even if there was a discussion with Twitter including that it must now be registered in Nigeria as a business concern.

Apart from Twitter, he said other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram must be registered in the country.

He said freedom of speech has not been stifled by the suspension of Twitter as he maintained that Nigerians can still use other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

He refuted the claims in some quarters that the suspension was not effective arguing that Twitter was already losing money as a result of the action.