Deji Elumoye in Abuja
The Federal Government on Saturday justified its ‘temporary’ suspension of the microblogging site, Twitter, saying the outfit is synonymous with the spread of fake news and misinformation in the country.
Although it described Twitter’s removal of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet as disappointing, the Presidency, said the social media outfit’s suspension had nothing to do with the removal of the President’s tweet.
The federal Government had suspended the microblogging site indefinitely on Wednesday, but the latest reaction from the presidency indicates that the ban imposed onTwitter operations in Nigeria may not be for too long as it said the suspension was temporary.
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a release, attributed the suspension of Twitter to a lot of problems associated with the media platform including misinformation and fake news which have had telling effect on Nigeria.
He said: “The temporary suspension of Twitter is not just a response to the removal of the President’s post. There has been a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences. All the while, the company has escaped accountability.
Nevertheless, the removal of President Buhari’s tweet was disappointing. The censoring seemed based on a misunderstanding of the challenges Nigeria faces today.”
He quoted the President as saying in his address at the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA in 2019 that “the world was shocked and startled by the massacre in New Zealand by a lone gunman taking the lives of 50 worshippers.”
According to him, this and similar crimes which have been fueled by social media networks risk seeping into the fabric of an emerging digital culture.
He emphasised that major tech companies must be alive to their responsibilities, adding that “they cannot be allowed to continue to facilitate the spread of religious, racist, xenophobic and false messages capable of inciting whole communities against each other, leading to loss of many lives”.
This, according to him, could tear some countries apart.
He stressed that President Buhari had therefore been warning against social media disruptive and divisive influences and the government’s action was not a knee-jerk reaction to Twitter’s preposterous deletion of his tweet which should have been read in full.
The release stated inter alia:
“The tweet was not a threat, but a statement of fact. A terrorist organisation (IPOB) poses a significant threat to the safety and security of Nigerian citizens. When the President said that they will be treated “in a language they understand,” he merely reiterated that their force shall be met with force. It is a basic principle of security services response world over.
“This is not promotion of hate, but a pledge to uphold citizens’ right to freedom from harm. The government cannot be expected to capitulate to terrorists.
“IPOB is proscribed under Nigerian law. Its members murder innocent Nigerians. They kill policemen and set government property on fire. “Now, they have amassed a substantial stockpile of weapons and bombs across the country.
“Twitter does not seem to appreciate the national trauma of our country’s civil war. This government shall not allow a recurrence of that tragedy”.
