Social Media Companies must be Licensed before Operation.

The Twitter indefinite Ben has led to a lot of chaos and troubles in the country. The President, his excellency Mohammedu Buhari had threatened to deal with persons that are destroying government facilities and killing security operatives with reference to the Nigerian civil war between 1967 and 1970 where over three million citizens, mostly from the southeast region, were killed.

Nigerians saw President Buhari’s comment as a threat of genocide against residents of the southeast region and requested that the president’s account be suspended. Their pleas were not granted but Twitter said the tweet violated its ‘abusive behaviour’ policy. Twitter deleted the President’s comment 12 hours after it was tweeted.

However, the Nigerian government on Friday, 4th June, 2021 announced an indefinite ban on the social media giant and accused Twitter of aiding the destruction of private and public properties. Nigerians are still using Twitter with the aid of virtual private networks (VPN) but risk prosecution, according to Nigeria’s attorney general Abubakar Malami, who is being challenged by thousands on the platform. 

Moving on, Nigeria’s information and culture minister Lai Mohammed told a news conference that he has directed the regulatory agency National Communications Commission (NCC) to commence the process of licensing all social media operations.

Lai Mohammed said Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms must be registered in the country. The nigerian government on Wednesday, 9th June, 2021 said all social media companies must be licensed before they operate in the country.