By Chinenye Anuforo, Lagos
The federal government on Thursday said it is closely monitoring the evolving developments on Twitter after Elon Musk take over stating that it will not sit by and allow the micro-blogging site, Twitter or any other social media platform to throw Nigeria into crisis.
Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture, gave this warning at a joint briefing with the Minister of Aviation in Abuja.
He said reports have revealed a spike in fake news, disinformation and hate speech since the business magnate, Elon Musk took over ownership of the micro-blogging site.
According to him, the issue has elicited a lot of inquiries, particularly from the media, and bordering on what will become of the government’s agreement with Twitter in view of the change in its ownership.
“Let me say this: It has never been our intention to ban any social media platform or stifle free speech. Not at all. What happened in the case of Twitter is well-known to all. Twitter became a platform of choice for those who want to destabilize Nigeria, using fake news,
disinformation and hate speech. No nation will allow any social media platform to plunge it into anarchy. Definitely not Nigeria,” the minister said.
“But we have continued to engage positively with the different social media platforms, including Facebook, Google (owners of YouTube) and Twitter.
We have no intention of banning any social media platform again. But we will also not sit by and allow any platform whatsoever to throw our nation into crisis,” he added.
Federal Government announced the suspension of Twitter operations on June 4, 2021, after the social media giant deleted a post by President Buhari for violating its policy.
The ban was lifted in January 2022 after about eight months, which resulted in economic losses running into billions of naira.
Musk began the acquisition of Twitter by Elon on April 14. He concluded the process on October 27, 2022, and has since been effecting some changes.