Yes, citizens of Nigeria are currently facing this situation, As the govt has decided to impose a ban on Twitter. The government officials have said that the use of micro-blogging sites has boosted the violence in Nigeria’s corporate existence as some people have used it to spread fake news.
The government officials also stated that Twitter is also supporting a movement in the south-east of Nigeria, where people are fighting for an independent state of Biafra. President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted about the 1960-70 Nigerian civil war, He said, “those misbehaving today” in “the language they will understand”. After this, the users of the micro-blogging site have shown their anger on Twitter and the president faced massive backlash for making such comments. The Twitter authority deleted the tweet for violating the rules.
After the tweet got deleted by Twitter, the government got anxious and blamed Twitter for using a double standard policy. The official said that Twitter doesn’t delete the tweet of the leader of Biafra, in that tweet which has encouraged the killing of police personal. All these tweets were deleted after this. And the government has decided to ban this micro-blogging site (Twitter). Some people are using VPN (Virtual private network) to use Twitter after telecommunications companies applied the order to block the micro-blogging site.
The youth of the nation is also angry as the government has backfired the Gbenga Sesan of the Paradigm Initiative, which offers digital opportunities to young people across Africa.
Many legal experts say that there is no such law in Nigeria that makes it illegal to tweet but some experts say that police can arrest the violator as the police has given sweeping power under national security legislation. Nigerian security forces are known to intensely enforce government orders even where there is no clarity.
Some major newspapers of Nigeria such as The Punch, Daily Trust, and The Guardian, all have their online versions, but the internet is not regulated in Nigeria, so these newspapers have no agency of government to watch over, as they are continually using their Twitter handles.
And other sources of media like radio, television stations have an agency to look over them, that is a national broadcasting agency. These sourcess have got an official notice to deactivate their Twitter account otherwise, it will be treated under an unpatriotic act.
