Nigerian government and the management of Twitter may be inching close to a resolution of their conflict, going by hints dropped on Wednesday by the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed.
Mohammed said that #Twitter had reached out to the Nigerian Government seeking high-level discussion to resolve the issues surrounding the suspension of its operations in Nigeria.
He spoke during a chat with State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) held at the
Presidential Villa.
He said that he got the message from Twitter Wednesday morning .
Meanwhile, Mohammed insisted that the microblogging platform was suspended because it provided an avenue for people that were threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria.
According to him: “the owner of #Twitter helped to fund the recent #EndSARS protest while allowing the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to use the platform to call for the killing of policemen.”
He said #Twitter failed to take down Kanu’s tweets despite repeated requests to do so.
Mohammed listed conditions that must be met even if there is a discussion with #Twitter.
One of them is that Twitter must now be registered in Nigeria as a business concern.
Apart from #Twitter, he said other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram must be registered in the country.
According to the government spokesperson, freedom of speech had not been stifled by the suspension of #Twitter as he maintained that Nigerians can still use other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
He also denied that the suspension was not effective, pointing out that Twitter was losing money as a result of the action.
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