President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the ban on Twitter operations in Nigerian should be lifted if the micro blogging media platform meets conditions listed by the Nigerian Government.
In his national broadcast on Nigeria’s 61st independence anniversary Friday, Buhari said following the suspension of Twitter operations on June 5, Twitter Inc. reached out to the Federal Government to resolve the impasse.
He said he constituted a Presidential Committee to engage Twitter to explore the possibility of resolving the issue, noting that the Committee, along with its Technical Team, engaged with Twitter and has addressed a number of key issues.
These issues, the President said, are National Security and Cohesion; Registration, Physical presence and Representation; Fair Taxation; Dispute Resolution; and Local Content.
Buhari said following the extensive engagements, the issues were being addressed and he had “directed that the suspension be lifted but only if the conditions are met to allow our citizens continue the use of the platform for business and positive engagements.”.
Speaking further, the President said: “Social media is a very useful platform that has enabled millions of Nigerians to connect with loved ones, promote their businesses, socialise, and access news and other information.
“ However, recent events have shown that the platform is not just an innocuous platform for information dissemination.
“Rather some users have misused the platform to organise, coordinate, and execute criminal activities, propagate fake news, and promote ethnic and religious sentiments.”