Nigeria’s government declared on Friday that Twitter operations in the nation will be suspended, claiming that the site was being used for actions that might jeopardize the country’s corporate survival.”
The government has “suspended, indefinitely, the activities of the microblogging and social networking website Twitter in Nigeria,” according to the information ministry “two days after Facebook removed a comment from President Muhammadu Buhari’s official account for violating its rules.
Soon after Friday’s declaration, which gave no timing for the suspension to begin, Twitter was still operational in Africa’s most populous country.
“I can’t address technicalities,” ministry special assistant Segun Adeyemi told AFP when questioned about the decision. The company’s activities will be halted permanently.”
The ban was also announced on the ministry’s own Twitter account.
Following Buhari’s reference to the country’s civil war in a warning about recent violence in the country’s southeast, Twitter removed a message on his account for breaking its rules on Wednesday.
The 78-year-old president, a retired military, called people who are “misbehaving” “misbehaving.” “Separatists have been accused by officials for attacks on police and election offices in recent unrest in the southeast.
On Wednesday, Minister of Information Lai Mohammed accused Twitter of disregarding violent tweets from a separatist leader, as well as mentioning Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s support for the #EndSARS rallies against police brutality in Nigeria last year.
