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Nigeria govt says to lift Twitter ban soon

By AFP
Nigeria About 40 million people have a Twitter account in Nigeria, or around 20 percent of the population.  By Olivier DOULIERY AFPFile
AUG 11, 2021 LISTEN
About 40 million people have a Twitter account in Nigeria, or around 20 percent of the population. By Olivier DOULIERY (AFP/File)

Nigeria will lift its ban on Twitter soon after advancing in negotiations to end its differences with the social media giant, the government said on Wednesday.

The ban in June came days after Twitter deleted a remark from President Muhammadu Buhari's account, provoking an international outcry over freedom of expression.

Nigerian officials defended the suspension saying Twitter was used to promote destabilising activities, especially by separatist agitators in the southeast.

"The ban on Twitter will soon be lifted as we are getting close to reaching full agreement," Information Minister Lai Mohammed told reporters in Abuja.

"We have agreed on some areas, hopefully in the next few days or weeks we will conclude."

US-based Twitter said on Wednesday it recently met with the Nigerian government to discuss the ban and how to resolve the matter.

"Our aim is to chart a path forward to the restoration of Twitter for everyone in Nigeria," it said in a statement.

"We look forward to ongoing discussions with the Nigerian government and seeing the service restored very soon."

Segun Adeyemi, a ministerial aide, told AFP a date for lifting the ban would depend on a final accord and the government was seeking clarifications on Twitter's responses.

The UN, EU, US and Britain were among the foreign governments that joined rights groups to condemn the ban as damaging to freedom of expression in Africa's most populous country.

The block shocked Nigeria's hyper-connected youth in a country where 40 million people have a Twitter account or around 20 percent of the population, according to NOI polls, a local research organisation.

Twitter has played a key role for activists in Nigeria, with the hashtags #BringBackOurGirls after Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in 2014, and #EndSARS during anti-police brutality protests last year.

Nigeria had said the ban would end when Twitter submitted to local licencing, registration and conditions for working in the country.

The ban decision came just two days after the platform deleted a tweet from Buhari's own account for violating its rules.

He had referenced Nigeria's civil war five decades ago when one million people died, in the context of a warning to those behind recent unrest in the country's southeast.

At the time, Nigeria complained Twitter had not deleted violent remarks made by Nmandi Kanu, whose IPOB group agitates for a separate state for the region's ethnic Igbo people.

Kanu has since been arrested overseas and brought back to Nigeria where is facing trial.

Officials also made reference to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's support for the #EndSARS anti-police brutality protests.

Some Nigerian broadcasters were concerned the move against Twitter was part of a more general crackdown on the media by Buhari's government.

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