Twitter remains suspended in Nigeria
A tweet from Nigerian President Buhari was deleted by the US company.
In the process, the Nigerian authorities decided to suspend access to the social network in the country, on June 5, 2021. © Twitter screenshot
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
This suspension follows a government decision announced on Friday evening, June 4.
The platform has been in the sights of the authorities for months, in particular because of its mobilization role during the demonstrations against police violence last October.
Publicity
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With our correspondent in Lagos,
Liza Fabbian
Despite the restrictions, Nigerians were still tweeting this Saturday, thanks to VPNs that bypass the access restrictions implemented in their country.
Amazement and great concern were reflected in their messages.
“
This ban looks like death.
The death of our freedom of expression,
”writes for example one of the figures of the #EndSars movement against
police violence
,
in which Twitter had played a big role
.
In a statement, Twitter teams said they were "
very worried
" about the suspension of the platform in Nigeria.
They promised "
to do everything possible to restore access
" to the social network for Nigerians.
The Nigerian presidency spoke on the subject on Saturday.
The spokesperson for President Muhammadu Buhari this time evokes a “
temporary suspension
” of Twitter and evokes “
disinformation and fake news
” spread on the social network, which “
shies away from its responsibilities
”, according to him.
This press release also returns to the controversial tweet of the head of state that Twitter had deleted.
In it, Muhammadu Buhari threatened in very harsh terms the members of the Biafran independence movement of Ipob.
"
It was not a hate speech
" estimates the presidency, which maintains in passing that there is only "
the force which is an adapted answer vis-a-vis the show of force
" of the separatist group.
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