Twitter ban to be lifted ‘ in a matter of days’ __ Lai Muhammed

Ridwan AREMU

The Federal Government said the ban on operations on micro blogging platform, Twitter, will be lifted “in a matter of days”.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave this update after the week’s virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Providing updates on the government’s negotiation with the micro-blogging site, the Minister gave more details of the conditions given to the platform, saying most of them have been accepted.

He said the areas still pending such as Twitter setting up an office and having a Twitter staff of management cadre that will serve as the country representative, were being discussed.

Mohammed revealed in the area of a Nigerian office, even though Twitter has agreed to the condition, it is however maintaining the earliest it can establish it is 2022.

The Minister expressed confidence everything will be hammered out with Twitter within a few days or weeks, noting the anxiety shown by Nigerians.

He said the Federal Government’s committee negotiating with Twitter will meet on the agreement soon to make recommendations.

The Federal Government had on June 4, 2021, announced a ban on Twitter and through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) directed telecoms companies, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to the platform.

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) had equally directed broadcasting stations to desist from patronising the platform while media houses also had to deactivate their Twitter accounts.

According to research by Netblocks, the local economy loses at least N 2,177,089,051 ($6,014,390) daily, since the indefinite suspension was slammed on the platform.

Also, a British firm, Top10VPN estimated that the ban has affected 104.4 million users in the country and cost the country about $366.9million. It made the calculations using NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool (COST) which estimates economic losses at about N102.77million ($250,600) every hour to the ban.

According to last month’s report of Social Media Stats in Nigeria compiled by statcounter GlobalStats, Facebook has 72.53per cent users; Instagram-15.02per cent; Pinterest- 5.43per cent; YouTube- 2.81 per cent; Twitter-2.79 per cent; and LinkedIn-0.74 per cent. According to Statista report, Nigeria has about 33 million active social media users, with about 26 per cent on Twitter.

Though Twitter is accessible via Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that mask location, experts warn its consistent use could have ripple effects on the economy.