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As part of its controversial move to regulate social media, the Nigerian government said on Wednesday that Twitter, Facebook and other social media giants must register in the country.
Information minister Lai Mohammed also said Twitter, which was recently suspended by the Nigerian government, has called for a ‘high-level’ discussion.
Mr Mohammmed said these in Abuja while briefing journalists after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting.
He repeated the government’s stance that Twitter was suspended because it provided an avenue for people threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria.
He claimed that the owner of Twitter helped to fund the recent #EndSARS protest and is also allowing the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to use the platform to call for the killing of Nigerian security operatives.
Screenshot of Malami’s Twitter deactivation shows app for trading banned cryptocurrency
A screenshot of Mr Malami s deactivation of his Twitter account also contained a couple of icons including one used to trade the prohibited cryptocurrency.
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As a follow-up to his earlier threat to prosecute users of the microblogging platform, Nigeria’s Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami, flaunted the deactivation of his Twitter account on Facebook Tuesday.
Attached to his “My Twitter Account Deactivated” post, however, is a screenshot of the deactivation, which also contained a couple of icons including one used to trade the prohibited cryptocurrency.
Checks by PREMIUM TIMES showed that while making the screenshot on his phone, Mr Malami had LATOKEN, a crypto trading app, on.
Why Buhari Suspended Twitter – Presidency
Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesman, explained that the ban was not all about Buhari s tweet deleted by Twitter.
by SaharaReporters, New York
Jun 05, 2021
The Presidency has explained why President Muhammadu Buhari suspended the operation of Twitter in Nigeria.
Nigeria s information and culture minister Lai Mohammed had on Friday announced Twitter s suspension in a statement by his media aide, Segun Adeyemi.
Muhammadu Buhari
Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesman in a statement released on Saturday night, explained that the ban was not all about Buhari s tweet deleted by Twitter.
The statement read, 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.