Subscribe Now
Trending News

Blog Post

Twitter Ban Will Be Lifted Soon Since All The FG’s Conditions Have Been Met
News

Twitter Ban Will Be Lifted Soon Since All The FG’s Conditions Have Been Met 

The government’s Technical Committee, which was established to resolve the crisis, is delivering a final report to President Muhammadu Buhari.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

The Nation newspaper reports, the social media platform Twitter has met the six requirements imposed by the Nigerian government.

Following allegations from various users, the Buhari-led federal government halted Twitter’s activities in June 2021. The company had removed one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweets for breaking its platform guidelines.

According to The Nation, the government’s Technical Committee for resolving the deadlock between the two sides is fine-tuning Twitter’s proposals before making a final recommendation to President Buhari.

The president is also expecting the committee’s report on lifting the prohibition.

According to the article, the president has also agreed in principle to reinstate Twitter in Nigeria.

The government may also change the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act to include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other social media services.

The conditions that Twitter has met are as follows:

  1. Open an office in Nigeria
  2. Have a country representative
  3. Register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)/get National Broadcasting Commission’s licence
  4. Payment of fair taxes
  5. Sensitive to national security and cohesion. It must not undermine the nation’s security
  6. Train Nigerian IT personnel and strategic intelligence officers on how to report twitter abuse /infractions noticed by the government.

The newspaper quotes a source as saying that: “From the records, Twitter has finally met six conditions set by the Federal Government for the lifting of the ban on its service in Nigeria as at the close of business in 2021.

“The operation of Twitter will now be fully regulated, including opening of office and deployment of a Country Representative. We can now hold an officer responsible for any infraction.

“Twitter only requested that the Federal Government should allow it to open the office in 2022 because there was no provision for it in its last year’s budget. Since we are in a new year, we are expecting that the office will take off soon.

“With payment of taxes, we are hopeful that the government will earn enhanced revenue from Twitter. This ban has helped to correct the lapses of the past. For instance, Twitter has been raking huge cash from Nigeria without legal backing and compliance with our revenue laws.

“Although it was alleged that Nigerians have lost over N6billion to the ban but the Federal Government has lost much more in revenue.

“In spite of recourse to VPN by some users in Nigeria, Twitter revenue slumped considerably because this alternative does not fetch income to it.

“Now, the era of impunity is gone. Twitter must register with CAC and operate in Nigeria as a business concern which it is in other parts of the world.”

Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, has consistently maintained that the Twitter ban will be reversed shortly.

President Buhari lifted the restriction on a conditional basis on Independence Day.

Related posts

Leave a Reply

Required fields are marked *