‘Censorship Is Evil’: Fani-Kayode Tackles Nigerians Celebrating Trump Twitter Ban

Former Minister of Aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has slammed Nigerians celebrating the ban placed on the Twitter account of United States President, Donald Trump.

Naija News reports that Twitter had permanently suspended Trump over tweets on its platform.

Twitter in a post said, “After a close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account, we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

Reacting in a post on his Twitter page on Saturday, Fani-Kayode pointed out that Nigerians cannot celebrate Trump’s Twitter ban and kick against President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s move to censor social media.

He wrote: “You cannot celebrate banning @realDonaldTrump on Facebook and Twitter and at the same time say you are against the Social Media Bill that the Buhari Govt. wants to introduce.

“You are either for freedom of speech or you are not. You cannot have it both ways. Censorship is evil.”

You cannot celebrate banning @realDonaldTrump on Facebook and Twitter and at the same time say you are against the Social Media Bill that the Buhari Govt. wants to introduce. You are either for freedom of speech or you are not. You cannot have it both ways. Censorship is evil.

— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) January 9, 2021

This newspaper reports that the decision to suspend Trump’s account came after a pair of tweets on Friday, according to the one-to-many messaging platform.

Trump in one of the tweets on Friday stated that none of his supporters would be “disrespected” and in the other one, he noted that he would not be attending the inauguration of Biden.

“These two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behaviour from this account in recent weeks,” Twitter said.

The company determined the tweets violated its “Glorification of Violence Policy” and that “user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service.”

Twitter confirmed that several hundred employees signed a letter to chief executive Jack Dorsey saying they were disturbed by the “insurrection” carried out by Trump supporters who had been rallied by the president.

The employees called for Twitter to assess the role its platform played in Wednesday’s events.