Prosecution of Twitter ban offenders in Nigeria to be carried out immediately. Anyone found to have violated the ban of the social media platform Twitter to face the full extent of the law.
Following the Twitter ban in Nigeria on Friday 4th June,2021, many Nigerians have continued to use the social media application with the help of VPN applications after mobile network providers in Nigeria enforced the ban by blocking access to Twitter after being ordered by the government.
Regardless of the governments continued threats to arrest and prosecute anyone caught disobeying and violating the ban, Nigerians have remained defiant.
This move to ban the social media firm, comes after Twitter deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari for breaching the site’s rules.
Some users of the platform saw the Presidents post, which referred to Nigeria’s civil war four decades ago as an implied threat against the secessionist movement in the south east states of the country https://www.parrotreporters.com
Buhari’s government said on Saturday 5th of June that the tweets removal was “disappointing”. but not only the reason for the temporary suspension.
“There has been a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences,” the government said.
Twitter said the announcement of the ban on Friday by Minister Lai Mohammed was “deeply concerning”, and soon a twitter hashtag in support of Nigerians rights to keep twitting was created #keepiton
The ban also brought widespread condemnation from human rights groups and international organizations and powers, who say it will limit free speech in Nigeria.
In a statement, Justice Minister Abubakar Malami said he had “directed for immediate prosecution of offenders of the Federal Government ban on Twitter operations in Nigeria”, telling the public prosecutor to “swing into action”.
The message was targeted at both corporations and individuals, said the minister’s spokesperson Umar Gwandu.
The government of Nigeria alleged that Twitter was being used to undermine “Nigeria’s corporate existence”.
The platform was allowing “the spread of religious, racist, xenophobic and false messages” that “could tear some countries apart”, a spokesperson said.
The national broadcasting regulator, NBC, had been told to begin “licensing all internet streaming services and social media operations in Nigeria”, a government statement said.
Earlier, the professional body of Nigerian mobile phone operators – known as Alton – confirmed they had been told to stop people getting on to Twitter. The group said its members had complied with the government order due to “national interest provisions” in Nigerian telecoms law and licensing terms.
But Alton also said that it backed the UN’s position that the right to communicate both offline and online should be protected.
Edited by Opeyemi Babarinde
culled from yahoo news
