The Nigerian government has announced that it has reached an agreement with the leadership of Twitter. In exchange for lifting the blocking and ban on use in the country, the leadership of the social network will open a representative office in Nigeria, solve the problem with taxation and filter content in accordance with Nigerian law. The Nigerian government banned the use of Twitter and blocked the social network in the summer of 2021 after a conflict with the deletion of a controversial tweet by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

In early June 2021, Muhammadu Buhari wrote a blog post with an ambiguous message that was seen as a direct threat from the Biafra separatist movement:

Many of those who misbehave today are too young to know of the devastation and death during the Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970. (quote from RIA Novosti)

The Nigerian civil war ended with the fall of the Biafra region. According to some estimates, about 1 million people died during the military conflict and another 1-2 million people due to famine and disease that followed it. Given the ongoing conflicts in the country, Twitter deemed the post inappropriate and removed it shortly after it was posted, prompting strong government outrage. For example, Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed said that the president is free to express his opinion if he is concerned about the situation.

The formal reason for the subsequent blocking and imposition of liability for the use of the social network was the suspicion that Twitter was used for activities that could undermine the unity of Nigeria. The government also ordered the regulator (National Broadcasting l Commission, NBC) to immediately license all OTT services and social networks in the country.

In an October speech, Muhammadu Buhari pointed out that a number of key issues need to be worked out in order to remove Twitter sanctions, such as issues of national security and unity, having representation in Nigeria, fair taxation, and resolving disputes with the government. Similar terms had been voiced by Lai Mohammed two months earlier. Judging by the current statement of Nigeria, the parties have reached an agreement, and a representative office will appear in the country, as well as a legal entity for paying taxes and interacting with regulators.

A similar conflict with the authorities occurred between Twitter and the government of India. On May 24, 2021, the Twitter office in New Delhi was raided following a “manipulative media content” flag on a tweet by the head of the ruling party. After that, the social network was accused of not removing blasphemous content published by the Atheist Republic blog, a threat to national security, and more. At that time, the tightened “Information Technology Law” had already come into force, according to which the owners of social networks are required to actively cooperate with the authorities and remove all illegal content published by Indian users.

There was no reaction to the new demands from Twitter, as a result of which, on July 5, the Supreme Court in New Delhi deprived the social network of immunity. Thus, the government received a legal opportunity to bring the leadership of the social network to criminal liability for illegal publications of Indian citizens. On August 10, another hearing was held in this case, as a result of which the social network agreed to work under the new rules in exchange for the return of immunity.

The tightening of Indian laws, as in the case of Nigeria, can also be directly related to the protests of the population. For example, in November and December 2020, there was a general strike in India with a farmers' march. They were actively covered in social networks, including on Twitter. The Indian government sent hundreds of requests to remove posts with information about these events under the pretext of a threat to national security, but the request was not fulfilled. After that, a new “Information Technology Law” comes out in February.

bbabo.Net