Twitter Has Agreed To All FG’s Conditions, Says Keyamo

Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo says the social media giant, Twitter has agreed to all the conditions given to it by the Federal Government.

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration had in June suspended the operations of Twitter in Nigeria, citing the “persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”

Keyamo, who is a member of the committee Buhari set up to dialogue with the microblogging site, said this when he appeared on Channels Television, Sunday, noting that the committee has made significant progress.

He noted that the Federal Government suspended the platform to recalibrate the relationship between both parties.

“The reason the president took that step is to recalibrate our relationship with Twitter and not to drive them away from our country.

“That recalibration, we have started it and the President graciously added me to the committee.

“We also set up a technical committee to interface with Twitter and come up with a lot of conditions for them to fulfill for us to lift the suspension.

“It was Twitter that reached out to the Federal Government to say they want to know what and what they can do to straighten up the relationship with the Federal Government and so, we have gone far but I may not, at this forum, let out a lot but we gave them a lot of conditions and they have agreed to all the conditions,” he added.

In early June 2021, President Buhari announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter after the platform deleted one of his tweets and temporarily suspended his account.

His tweet about Nigerian secessionists had threatened to treat “those who misbehave today” in “the language they will understand,” infringing on Twitter user rules prohibiting content that threatens or incites violence.

Despite the ban, many Nigerians still have access to the site using virtual private networks (VPN) and can share their opinion on other apps, like Indian-based microblogging site Koo.

The ban has hurt Nigerian businesses and drawn backlash among social media users and human rights activists for its damaging effect on freedom of expression and the ease of doing business in Africa’s most populous nation.