President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the conditional lifting of the ban on the operations of the microblogging site, Twitter
The president made the announcement during his nationwide broadcast to commemorate the 61st independence anniversary of Nigeria
Buhari, however, lamented that some Twitter users have misused the platform to organ ise and propagate fake news
Aso-Rock, Abuja – Barely four months after the suspension of the operations of the microblogging site, Twitter, in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, October 1, said he had directed a conditional lifting of the ban.
Buhari described social media as a very useful platform but regretted that some users have misused the platform to organise, coordinate, and execute criminal activities, propagate fake news, and promote ethnic and religious sentiments.
He said:
“Social media is a very useful platform that has enabled millions of Nigerians to connect with loved ones, promote their businesses, socialise, and access news and other information.
“However, recent events have shown that the platform is not just an innocuous platform for information dissemination. Rather some users have misused the platform to organise, coordinate, and execute criminal activities, propagate fake news, and promote ethnic and religious sentiments.
“Following the suspension of Twitter operations, Twitter Inc. reached out to the Federal Government of Nigeria to resolve the impasse. Subsequently, I constituted a Presidential Committee to engage Twitter to explore the possibility of resolving the issue.
The president added that the committee, along with its technical team, engaged with Twitter and addressed a number of key issues, saying that these include national security and cohesion; registration, physical presence and representation; fair taxation; dispute resolution; and local content.
