President Muhammadu Buhari-led governed on Saturday defended its decision to suspend the operation of Twitter in Nigeria, adding that the company has escaped accountability for a while.
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a statement released on Saturday said the Buhari government will not allow tech companies to tear Nigeria apart.
Shehu denied the allegation that the Federal Government suspended Twitter because it deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet on Civil War.
“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.
“The President in his address at the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA in 2019 said, “the world was shocked and startled by the massacre in New Zealand by a lone gunman taking the lives of 50 worshippers.”
“This and similar crimes which have been fueled by social media networks risk seeping into the fabric of an emerging digital culture.
“Major tech companies must be alive to their responsibilities. 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 the loss of many lives. This could tear some countries apart.
“President Buhari has therefore been warning against social media’s disruptive and divisive influences and the government’s action is not a knee-jerk reaction to Twitter’s preposterous deletion of his tweet which should have been read in full.”
The article was originally published on Nigeria News