Twitter Suspension: Federal Government Still Open To Dialogue – Lai Mohammed

By Ayodele Oni

The Minister for Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced on Tuesday that the  social media handle, Twitter, has written to the Federal Government on the way forward over the current suspension of the international online media.

Speaking on a phone in Radio programme, of the FRCN, the Minister explained that the Federal Government, too, has set its own rules which the Management of the online media must adhere to before it operates in the country.

He stated: “I can confirm that Twitter has written to the Federal Government that they are ready to talk.

“As we have always maintained, the door is not locked and we are open-minded but Twitter must work towards it.

The Minister reiterated that among other conditions for Twitter to resume operation in Nigeria, there must be an agreement as to what contents it could post.

According to him, Twitter and other platforms must also register as a Nigerian company, obtain license from the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and be guided by the rules of the licensing as well as pay taxes, adding that regulation of social media platforms is becoming a global practice.

He said most countries were just waking up to the fact that the platforms were becoming more powerful than even Government and needed to be regulated.

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) which also monitored the programme from Abuja, quoted the minister as saying that regulation of social media platforms is becoming a global practice.

He pointed out that most countries were just waking up to the fact that the platforms were becoming more powerful than even Governments and needed to be regulated.

“Singapore, Algeria, Pakistan, Turkey regulate the social media, Australia has done so. Even EU that does not have particular laws on social media has made recommendations in a white paper.”

The Minister said that the UK initiated a new law that would make social media companies be fined up to 18 million pounds (about N10.8 billion) if they failed to stamp out online abuses.

He said Google was fined 220 million Euros (about N110 billion) on June 7 by French Competition Regulator for abusing its dominance in the online advertising market in France.

Similarly, the minister said the Federal Cabinet of Pakistan had approved a new set of rules to regulate social media.

In the rules, according to the minister, companies such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even TikTok were to register and open offices in Pakistan.

He said in compliance with the new online broadcasting rule of Turkey, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video had obtained licenses from that country’s broadcasting authority.

Alhaji Mohammed noted that regulation of the social media was not synonymous with stifling press freedom, stressing that “We must not confuse press freedom with irresponsibility.

“How can you stay in your country and allow your own platform to be used to propagate war in another country?

“The suspension of Twitter is to ensure that no particular platform is used to cause war in Nigeria. Secondly, to ensure that whoever is making money in Nigeria must be made to pay tax.

“Our appeal to Nigerians is that they should understand where we are coming from.

We have no intention to stifle people’s freedom or to cut off the source of livelihood of anybody.

“There must be a country devoid of war before we can talk of freedom and a source of living.”