Deji Adejanju Alleges Twitter Gave Nigerian Government Access to its Backend to Monitor Tweets by Nigerians
- Nigerians have said Twitter may have compromised by allowing the Nigerian government access to the backend
- Deji Adeyanju said he will stop using the microblogging site if it is proven the Twitter agreed to surrender its back end to Nigeria
- Many Nigerians said the move may not be possible as laws governing big techs in the United States of America forbids that
Foremost rights activist, Deji Adeyanju has said that he will cease to use Twitter if it is proven that it gave Nigerian government to its backend in order to monitor and delete anti-government tweets.
Adeyanju said:
“I will stop using Twitter forever if it is confirmed they agreed to give access to their backend to the Nigerian Govt to delete anti Govt tweets or tweets the Govt finds offensive.”
Source: Getty Images
Adeyanju said this on Thursday via tweet a day after the Nigerian government lifted the ban it imposed on the microblogging site.
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But some Nigerians said that the federal government does not need access to the backend to clamp down on anti-government tweets as the platform may automatically delete tweets it finds offensive to the government.
Why Twitter was banned in Nigeria
Many said the laws governing big tech in the US will not allow Twitter to surrender its backend to the Nigerian government.
The Nigerian government banned Twitter on June 4, 2021 after it deleted a tweet by President Mhammadu Buhari in which he threatened the Igbos that they will be dealth with in the language they understand.
Many Nigerians reported Buhari’s tweets to the platform prompting it to take down the tweet.
Nigerians resorted to the use of Virtual Private Networks, VPNs to bypass the ban.
The Nigerian government and Twitter agreed to a series of conditions before the ban was lifted on Wednesday, January 11, 2021, six months after.
Twitter's ranking went down
Legit.ng reports that Buhari’s government’s refusal to lift the ban on Twitter has seen Facebook and Instagram soar in popularity in Nigeria.
The ban affected the bird app’s rising popularity in the country. Before the ban, it had deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu which threatened the people of the southeast.
Data from Gsocunter show that Facebook is leading the pack of popular social media in Nigeria by a much as 83.27 per cent, followed by Instagram at 10.51 per cent, YouTube follows with 2.86 per cent, Pinterest at 2.79 per cent.
Source: Legit.ng
