Nigerian telecoms firms have closed down access to Twitter after a regulatory directive, an industry source said on Saturday, a day after the government said it would suspend the U.S. social media mogul indefinitely.
Nigeria said on Friday it had indefinitely suspended Twitter’s activities; two days after the company deleted a post from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists in the West African country.
“We, the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) wish to affirm that our members have gotten formal directives from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to suspend access to Twitter,” it said.
ALTON said telecoms companies have followed NCC’s directives, in view of public interest. It said the association will liaise with experts and partners and decide how to proceed.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed said on Friday the government had acted due to “the steady utilization of the platform for activities that are aimed at sabotaging Nigeria’s corporate existence”.
He didn’t say what form the suspension would take.
Twitter, which couldn’t quickly be reached to remark on Saturday, said a day later it was exploring its “profoundly unsettling” suspension by the Nigerian government.
Buhari’s administration, which runs Africa’s biggest economy, a year ago proposed a legislation to manage online media following fights against supposed police brutality which were aroused by a campaign on Twitter.
The protests requesting police reforms drew worldwide consideration.
Rights group Amnesty International condemned Twitter’s suspension in a tweet and called on Nigerian authorities to “promptly switch the unlawful suspension and different designs to choke the media, quell the city space, and sabotage Nigerians’ common liberties”.
Buhari, who was Nigeria’s military ruler during the 1980s, has recently been blamed for cracking down on freedom of expression. His administration has denied such allegations.
Gill Atkinson, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, wrote in a tweet on Saturday that “all Nigerians reserve the option to the right to speak freely of discourse and the duty not to abuse that right”.
“Any activity taken by government should be estimated, proportionate and not stifle fundamental opportunities,” she said.
