Twitter ban: A ban like no other
By Elizabeth Olagunju
The Federal Government of Nigeria suspended Twitter, the microblogging platform, from operating in Nigeria on the 5th of June 2021 in response to the deletion of a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari. The Tweet, “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian civil war. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war will treat them in the language they understand”, was an apparent reference to the 30-month Nigerian civil war which remains a harrowing experience to the Igbo tribe, the perceived victims of the war. It was based on the complaints of people from this tribe that the tweet was judged by the micro logging company as threatening and therefore against the rules governing the use of the platform. Twitter, therefore, gave the account owner 12 hours to delete the offending tweet while the account will remain in ‘read-only mode’ for the specified number of hours. it was the failure of the President or his social media handlers to abide by the Twitter advice that led to the deletion and suspension of the account by Twitter.
The attendant debate by Nigerians as to whether what twitter did was right or whether the government was lording it over Twitter as it does to Nigerians came to an abrupt end the following day when Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister for information woke the nation with the news of the Twitter ban. The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed said that the Government decided to ban Twitter because the platform was being used for “activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.” He claimed that: “The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very suspicious”
The outrage and outpouring of anger by the public in respect to the Twitter ban attested to the unpopularity and displeasure of the average Nigerian with the action taken by the Federal Government. They vented this by creating different popular Hashtags #KeepitOn #TwitterBan through which they vented their angst with the government. Moreover, rather than comply with the government directive and lose the opportunity afforded by the platform, many Nigerian Twitter users opted for the use of the more expensive VPNs to bypass the ban. Are Nigerians unpatriotic for choosing a social media platform over nation? Is this peculiar to Nigeria or is it a global phenomenon? Is this a question about who is right or wrong or are we witnessing a gradual shift in power structure globally and the resistance of the subsisting power holders to perpetuate the status quo?
Finally, however, the hen came home to roost on Thursday, January, 13 when the Federal Government restored Twitter services in the country. The Director-General of the National Information Technology development agency, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi while announcing the end to the Twitter hiatus said that Twitter has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgment of the Nigerian laws and would work with the federal government “to develop a code of conduct in line with global best practices, applicable in almost all developed countries” “Twitter has agreed to comply with applicable tax obligations on its operations under Nigerian law” the Director affirmed.
Unfortunately, however, the foot-dragging by the government on the issue which affects the lives and living of millions of Nigeria coupled with the timing of the call-off has taken the shine off the action.
Beyond this, most of the apprehensions of informed stakeholders in the Nigerian enterprise including experts in the field of Marketing and advertising who called on the government to quickly rescind the ban, stating that it will affect the economy negatively have come to pass. for instance, Anthonia Ziregbe, Creative Director, Vwede Nova Company cautioned that: “Digital marketing for big organisations now take place on social media because that’s where the audience is, banning social media will affect digital marketing campaigns and online advertising”.
According to Emeka Okeke, Group Managing Director and CEO of Media Fuse Dentsu Nigeria, it is now unequivocal that the ban has affected marketing and advertising, as they could not reach their target client through Twitter. And how many of them can they find on other channels.
Nigerians believe that the government’s claim of promoting innovation and boosting economic growth is at variance with its actions and policies. They are of the opinion that the suspension of the platform that empowers million’s of Nigerians to earn a living, jeopardises the operations of thousands of corporate organisations that depend on social media for advertisement and sales and renders Nigerians incommunicado could not be tagged as promoting economic growth.
Meanwhile, in an effort to estimate the nation’s financial loss due to the ban, NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool, an agency that tracks the economic impact of the disruption of the internet has come up with an estimated $60m daily loss due to the Twitter ban. This is without taking into account the losses in influence, contact, and trauma that could be consequential to the ban.
While these losses mount on Nigeria and Nigerians, Twitter Inc.’s quarterly profits surpassed the expectations of economic analysts while the ban tarried. Did Nigeria gain anything during that period?
It is quite apparent that the Nigerian government needs to learn the culture of nurturance to build long-lasting relationships with foreign and local businesses which will help boost the country’s economy, as it is obvious that they don’t understand this concept which is why they hardly promote policies that can make big or small businesses thrive. The Nigerian government needs to learn from this experience, restructure policies, build long-lasting relationships with businesses, and key into the needs and concerns of the citizens rather than pay more attention to their ego and try to prove an inconsequential point at the expense of the economy and citizens’ well being. The Twitter ban is a ban like no other as it not only affected the economic revenue but also revealed the government is yet to grasp that people’s welfare is the core business of governance. What use is a government that doesn’t have the interest of the citizens and country at heart?
This ban is a ban like no other, as it not only affected the economic growth of the country, of her people, especially the teeming youth population but also stifled the voice of Nigerians and encroached on their human rights.
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