By John Ikani
The presidency has said that the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria is temporary even though it wasn’t just a response to the deletion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweets.
In a statement on Saturday, Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, said the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria is not only because Buhari’s post was deleted.
According to him, there has been a litany of problems with the microblogging platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences.
“The temporary suspension of Twitter is not just a response to the removal of the President’s post.
“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. All the while, the company has escaped accountability,” he said.
“All the while, the company has escaped accountability.”
The President added in his statement that the removal of his tweet was “disappointing” and that “the censoring seemed based on a misunderstanding of the challenges Nigeria faces today”.
There was widespread criticism of the Twitter ban, domestically and abroad, with the EU, US, Canada and the UK expressing disappointment in a joint statement on Saturday.
Banning systems of expression is not the answer, the statement said.
