Twitter Shuttered in Nigeria After Removing President’s Post

Telecommunications operators in Nigeria will shut down any remaining access to Twitter Inc.’s services by the end of Saturday on government orders, days after the social media giant deleted a post by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Major network providers disconnected Twitter as of 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Gbenga Awonuga, executive secretary of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria, said by phone. While Twitter was still accessible in some cases on Saturday morning, he said network carriers “are in the process of disconnecting access” across all platforms.

“Our members received formal instruction from the Nigerian Communications Commission, the industry regulator, to suspend access to Twitter,” Awonuga said. “We are only following the directive of the government, as we are licensees of the government.”

Buhari, who was briefly a military dictator during the 1980s, ran afoul of Twitter’s rules when he issued a threat to crack down on separatists waging a rebellion in the southeast of the country. His tweet was removed.

Twitter’s app is popular with young urban Nigerians, ranking as the sixth-most used social media platform in the country, and its suspension caused an outcry. The social media company said it was concerned by the move and will work to restore access.

Attorney General Abubakar Malami, who’s also the justice minister, ordered the immediate prosecution of those who violate the ban, according to a statement, without giving details on what constitutes an offender.

Nigeria’s government was already facing criticism over a proposed bill that would prohibit statements on social media deemed “likely to be prejudicial to national security” and “those which may diminish public confidence” in Nigeria’s government. The legislation could see offenders fined and imprisoned for up to three years and would empower law enforcement agencies to order Internet service providers to restrict access.

That Twitter was suspended before the bill was passed into law has sparked renewed concerns about the government’s intentions and freedom of expression in Nigeria.

“If Buhari has a problem with Twitter, he is advised to sort it out between them personally, the way Donald Trump did, not rope in the right to free expression of the Nigerian citizens as collateral damage,” the Leadership newspaper quoted Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Prize-winning writer and outspoken government critic, as saying. “In any case, this is a technical problem Nigerians should be able to work their way around. The field of free expression remains wide open, free of any dictatorial spasms.”

Nigerians can still bypass the ban and access Twitter using virtual private networks.

Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.

Connect with us on…

[unnamed]

Your society will be better off without Twitter. Every society on earth would.

[spocko]

If Twitter doesn’t like this, they should build their own Nigeria.

[tgosselin]

The Nigerian people have no idea what a blessing this is for them!

[HilarityBribo]

If only our Western Countries would shut it down.

[diegoflores]

So they interviewed people against the nigerian government controlling information, but its ok that a foreign multi-billion dollar company can control information?

[roberttolbert]

This needs to happen All over the F ing World .

[daveray]

This is a wonderful opportunity for the people of Nigeria to develop their own social media app.

[MrTylersmash]

People relying way too much on Twitter, that's the actual problem here.

[The_Gallowglass]

That's the problem. People shouldn't think they're getting "genuine" information off Twitter.

[JDsgreatz]

It doesn't matter what a politician is saying, the people need to hear it. Who is Twitter to censor politicians who don't agree with them?

[DuoFurey]

Wow. Nigeria has some balls standing up to big tech which is freaking amazing. Unlike other Nations when their top political leader is censored.

[aunavoz]

Wow even in Nigeria, they are trying to do this globally...We need to get rid of Twitter and their poses

[Joe-wkow]

good at least Nigeria is doing something right.

[Ivan.A.Churlyuski]

That’s how it should be everywhere. It should be illegal to censor any politician. Citizens have a right to know what their politicians are saying.

[rickeshpatel]

I never liked Twitter and always thought it is a platform that brings out the worst in people.
But that’s also a draw for people. We pretend to hate drama but we live for it.

[mistercohaagen]

Build your own IT infrastructure. Twitter is poisonous anyway.

[safetychuck]

Twitter...sticking their noses into politics around the world.

[xuantran-oktr]

People around the world should ban the Facebook and Tweeter .

[constitutionalright]

About F'ing time someone took a stand against the little emperors of tech.

[richardingramlaw]

This is what should happen to Facebook and Twitter in the USA!