FG Gives Update On Lifting Twitter Suspension

The Federal Government says it is getting closer to an agreement with Twitter to lift the suspension imposed on the micro-blogging site in Nigeria.

Naija News reported that the Nigerian government on June 4 announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter operations in the country.

Speaking with heads of global media companies on Friday in Washington DC, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the government is doing its best to lift the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria.

Mohammed disclosed that the social media platform has agreed to seven out of the 10 demands it made to lift the suspension on the social media platform in Nigeria.

The minister said some of the demands made to Twitter was for the platform to register as a Nigerian company, pay taxes from revenue made from the country and ensure that harmful content are regulated.

He stated that the reason for Twitter’s suspension was because of “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”.

Mohammed said the Twitter ban is effective in the country because less harmful content has been seen on social media.

He added that other social media platforms have also been more conscious and alert to injurious content likely to threaten national security.

He said: “We believe that even the other three outstanding demands are not really about whether they agreed or not but about timing and scheduling.

“That is what gave me the confidence that we are getting nearer to an agreement.

“As recently as last week, we exchanged correspondence with Twitter, and when I left home a few days ago; we are expecting a reply from them.

“It is left with Twitter to respond to grey areas that we asked them to look into.

“We are not inflexible in our negotiation with Twitter because we recognise both the positive and negative aspects of social media.”