By Chioma Iruke
Nigeria’s Minister of Communication, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Wednesday asserted that micro-blogging platform, Twitter has reached out to the Nigerian Government seeking high-level discussion to resolve the ban of the platform.
This is sequel to the suspension of its activities on the Nigerian social media space.
Mohammed, disclosed this after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, saying that he got the message on Wednesday morning.
He insisted that the microblogging platform was suspended because it provided an avenue for people threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria.
According to him, the owner of Twitter helped to fund the recent #EndSARS protest while allowing the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to use the platform to call for the killing of policemen.
He said Twitter failed to take down Kanu’s tweets despite repeated requests to do so.
Mohammed listed conditions that must be met even if there is a discussion with Twitter, including that it must now be registered in Nigeria as a business concern.
Apart from Twitter, he said other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram must be registered in the country.
According to the government spokesman, freedom of speech has not been stifled by the suspension of Twitter, as he maintained that Nigerians can still use other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
He also denied that the suspension is not effective, arguing that Twitter is losing money as a result of the action.
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