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An Assessment Of Twitter Ban On Nigeria’s Image In The International Community
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Statement of research problem
Emmanuel
Alumona, a front-end developer in Lagos, discovered he couldn't access
Twitter on his phone early on Saturday 4th, June 2021. The Nigerian
government had previously stated that Twitter's operations in the nation
will be suspended indefinitely due to "the continuous use of the
platform for actions that are capable of damaging Nigeria's corporate
existence." The ban in Africa's most populous nation comes only two days
after Twitter removed a message from President Muhammadu Buhari's
account for breaking its rules. “I thought Twitter's ban was a joke,â€
said Alumona, 24, who now uses a VPN to access Twitter. “I didn't think
the government would go that low. Twitter is similar to my local
newspaper. I refresh my timeline whenever I want to see what's going on
in the nation. My site was not loading when I got up on Saturday,â€
Alumona told Al Jazeera. The government's proposal to control social
media includes a ban on Twitter, a tool that aided the governing party's
win in the 2015 presidential election. In 2017, Nigeria's
communications minister, Lai Mohammed, criticized social media for "the
onslaught of misinformation and false news."
Soon after, the National
Council on Information (NCI) was formed, with the recommendation of
forming a council to govern the usage of social media. In 2019, the
information minister backed Senator Mohammed Sani Musa of the governing
APC party's anti-social media bill, titled: Protections against Internet
Falsehood and Manipulation. The government also mandated that internet
businesses such as WhatsApp, Zoom, Netflix, and Skype acquire licenses
from the National Broadcasting Commission before they may operate in the
nation. “Clearly, the registration is a pretext for regulation,†said
Joachim MacEbong, a senior analyst at SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based
political risk research company. “They are demonstrating that they are
willing to restrict democratic freedom. The next two years will be
challenging.†In 2015, President Buhari, who took power in a 1983 coup
and imprisoned hundreds of people, used social media as part of a
campaign strategy portraying him as a "converted democrat" in his fourth
presidential bid. Buhari was elected president in 2015 after being
overthrown in another coup in 1985. Buhari's government, according to
analysts, is reminiscent of his military dictatorship from 1984. He
enacted harsh legislation that allowed the government to imprison any
journalist or member of the civil society who "embarrassed" the
country's military leader. Several journalists have been imprisoned or
charged with treason during his presidency. The Reporters Without
Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index ranked Nigeria 120th out of 180
countries in 2021. Nigeria has been lauded as one of the few African
countries to attract investment into its tech ecosystem, but it was
recently overlooked when Twitter chose Ghana as the location for its
first African headquarters. However, with the Twitter ban, the
international community has weighed in on Nigerians' plight, stating
that Nigeria is a democratic country where freedom of speech is
protected. “The Biden State Department called on Nigeria to restore its
citizens' access to Twitter after the government blocked the site in
retaliation for deleting a tweet posted by the Nigerian president,†the
US government said in its own contribution. The United States "condemns
the Nigerian government's ongoing suspension of Twitter and threats to
arrest and prosecute Nigerians who use Twitter," according to a
statement from the State Department. The agency went on to say that
freedom of speech and access to information are "fundamental to
successful and safe democratic societies." The department urged
Nigeria's government to "respect its citizens' right to freedom of
expression by lifting the ban."
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