Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said that the Federal Government (FG) is monitoring the activities of Micro-blogging platform, Twitter, in Nigeria closely under the new leadership of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
The minister who spoke at a news conference, on Thursday, in Abuja, at the third edition of the “President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration (PMB) Scorecard 2015-2023” programme, said there is no intention of banning the platform again.
According to Lia Mohammed, What happened in the case of Twitter is well known to all. Twitter became a platform of choice for those who want to destabilise Nigeria, using fake news, disinformation and hate speech.
In his words, “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.
“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.
“Many have called to ask us what will become of our agreement with Twitter in view of the change in its ownership and they have also 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.
“We have also been asked if there is going to be another ban.
“What happened in the case of Twitter is well known to all. Twitter became a platform of choice for those who want to destabilise 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, YouTube and Twitter,” he added.
It would be recalled that the Federal government had in June 2021 banned Twitter in Nigeria following the tweet removal and the suspension of the President’s account for 12 hours by Twitter for allegedly violating its rules.
Twitter operations in Nigeria were later restored by the Buhari’s government in January 2022 after much back-and-forth between the former and the Twitter Inc.
