Whistleblower Says Nigeria Lied Over Negotiations With Twitter Concerning Ban
- A whistleblower has said the Nigerian government lied about reaching an agreement with Twitter over the 2021 ban
- Pieter Zatko disclosed to a US Federal Trade Commission that the company has no agreement with the West African country
- Nigeria had said it lifted the ban imposed on the social media company after it agreed to its terms
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A Whistleblower has said that Nigeria lied over its claims on January 2022 that it lifted the six month-long ban on Twitter in Nigeria because it reached an agreement with the microblogging site.
The federal government said that the social media giant agreed to meet all six of its conditions, a claim a former Twitter employee said is false.
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Whistleblower 'bursts' FG over negotiations
Pieter ‘Mudge’ Zatko disclosed this to the US Federal Trade Commission under the Whistleblower Aid.
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Zatko’s lawyers said he was employed at Twitter as security lead and a senior executive team member in charge of information security and privacy, physical security, information technology and Twitter Service.
Zatko alleged that after Twitter was blocked on June 2021, the Nigerian government lied that it was in negotiations with the social media company’s top executives, BusinessDay reports.
“Twitter’s failure to correct the false record on many reported non-existent discussions with the Nigerian government permitted Nigeria to negotiate unilaterally through media and dictate unfavourable terms for final resolutions,” the report read.
Nigeria’s information minister, Lai Mohammed said the country engaged top executives of the tech giant in negotiations to end the ban.
Multiple media reports said that the Nigerian government constituted a presidential committee to engage Twitter to find a way to resolve the issue.
The committee included the Attorney General of the Federation and Honourable Minister of Justice, Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honourable Minister of Works and Housing, Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment
According to BusinessDay, the issues to be resolved then included national security and cohesion, registration, physical presence and representation.
Others are fair taxation, dispute resolution and local content. The committee was chaired by Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General of the National Information Technology (NITDA).
Nigerians suspicious over deal with Twitter
The Nigerian government is yet to respond to Zatko’s claims but his revelations confirm suspicions by Nigerians about the deal.
After more than 10 months, Twitter has neither confirmed nor denied its alleged agreement with Nigeria.
Reports say Twitter spokesperson confirmed that there were no talks concerning establishing any presence in Nigeria.
FG finally lifts suspension on Twitter operations in Nigeria
Recall Legit.ng reported that the federal government lifted the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria following the approval by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The decision was announced by Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the chairman of the Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement and director-general of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Source: Legit.ng
