Nigeria and 3 other countries that have banned Twitter
Nigeria joined countries such as China, Iran, North Korea, and Turkmenistan to ban Twitter access. The most populated African nation made the decision on Friday, 4th June. Information Minister Lai Mohammed stated this at a press conference.
Lai Mohammed cited the continued use of the platform for activities that could undermine Nigeria’s corporate existence as the reason for the suspension.
The United Kingdom, Turkey and Egypt have temporarily suspended their use of Twitter. In China, large companies and national media access the social networking site through a VPN approved by the government.
Iran blocked Twitter during the 2009 presidential election for fear of organizing protests. Even though the ban on Twitter and Facebook was briefly lifted in September 2013, they were stopped again within a day.
North Korea began blocking Twitter, in April 2016, as a sign of its concern about the “spread of online information”.
Nigerians reacted to the news via Twitter
@drpampam, “If they want us to take this Twitter in Nigeria suspension seriously, Buhari, Bashir, Femi Adesina, Lai Mohammed and the rest of the gang should first deactivate their account, then we will know that they mean business.”
@symplytacha, “Confuse bunch of hypocrites. Imagine banning Twitter in Nigeria and still using the same App to let us know! What are the measures to effect this suspension, abeg?”
@alaminghost, “Buhari’s suspends Twitter in Nigeria, what of us hustlers that earn from the app ??”
@ayemojubar, “Lai Mohammed used Twitter to announce the ban of Twitter in Nigeria.”
@roviel, “FG has suspended Twitter in Nigeria, if you can still tweet, that means you’re in UAR.”
@Enisa, “ They are trying to suspend Twitter in Nigeria. Oh hell no, you are messing with the wrong people! Big WAHALA!!
@Apostle Suleman, “They are banning Twitter in Nigeria. And they announced it on Twitter.”
@festus, “Banning @Twitter violates S. 22 & 39 of the 1999 Constitution. Twitter seems to be the only medium through which we hold the reckless regime of Buhari responsible. We will resist the attempts to ban Twitter in Nigeria.”
@Henry, “So for removing a tweet that threatened genocide against a people, the Buhari’s govt decided to suspend the operations of @Twitter in this country. So the President isn’t sorry about the unfortunate tweet?”
