The Federal Government has disclosed that Twitter has contacted authorities in the country over the recent ban enforced on the platform.
Nairametrics reports that this was stated by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting held today in Abuja.
The new development comes after Lai Mohammed was summoned by the House of Representatives as part of investigations into the legality and justifiable objectives for the Twitter ban.
However, the Minister did not comment on the legal backing of the directive by Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who ordered the arrest of Nigerians still using Twitter after the ban was imposed.
Recall that the Minister had directed the suspension of Twitter on Friday following the deletion of President Buhari’s “civil war” tweet which was said to contravene the platform’s community guidelines.
The government seems unbending in its stance accusing Twitter of being an instrument used to incite anarchy and insurrection.
Together with the ban, authorities are looking to regulate Twitter as well as other over-the-top (OTT) and social media operations in the country by introducing new licence requirements through the Nigerian Communications Commission.
If successfully executed, this may see the likes of Twitter paying taxes to the government and restrict the scope of their operations within stipulated regulatory policy.
According to Mohammed, the Twitter ban has led to the company incurring huge losses worth billions. It remains to be seen how this plays out going forward.
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