No Plan To Ban Twitter Or Any Social Media Platform - FG Says

The Federal Government says it has no plan to ban any social media platform but will not watch any medium to throw the country into chaos.

Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed said this on Thursday while presenting the scorecard of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government from 2015 to 2022.

At the press conference in Abuja, the minister noted that the Federal Government is monitoring Twitter under the new ownership of Elon Musk.

Permit me to quickly address an issue that has elicited a lot of inquiries from the media in recent times. Many of your colleagues have called to ask us what will become of our agreement with Twitter in view of the change in its ownership,” the minister explained.

“Many have asked for our reaction following reports that there has been a spike in fake news, disinformation, and hate speech since the micro-blogging site changed ownership.

“Many have even asked us if another ban is in the offing. Let me say this: We are closely monitoring the evolving developments at Twitter. It has never been our intention to ban any social media platform or stifle free speech. Not at all. What happened in the case of Twitter is well-known to all.

“Twitter became a platform of choice for those who want to destabilize Nigeria using fake news, disinformation, and hate speech. No nation will allow any social media platform to plunge it into anarchy. Definitely not Nigeria.

“But we have continued to engage positively with the different social media platforms, including Facebook, Google (owners of YouTube), and Twitter. We have no intention of banning any social media platform again. But we will also not sit by and allow any platform whatsoever to throw our nation into crisis.”

Nigeria last year banned Twitter and claimed it was used to spread fake news and hate speech. The move, was, however, rescinded in January after the social media platform agreed to the government’s terms.