Investigative journalist David Hundeyin has linked the blocking of his Twitter account to his recent post on the dual citizenship allegation against Nigeria’s president-elect, Ahmed Bola Tinubu.
Hundeyin, who appeared as a guest on News Central Television on Tuesday, claimed that indeed the president-elect does have dual citizenship and that he lied under oath when he filled out his INEC EC9 form — a crime referred to as “perjury” and punishable by the laws of Nigeria.
He said because of the attention his post, which contained the data page of the president-elect’s Guinean international passport, generated, Twitter had temporarily blocked his account and not suspended it, as widely circulated.
Hundeyin added that many people had reported his account to Twitter, which resulted in the decision to temporarily block his account.
“My account has not been suspended,” he said. “It has just been temporarily blocked, which is what happens when a certain number of accounts reports a post of yours, and then Twitter automatically responds by locking your account and then gives you the choice to either delete the content and immediately regain your account, which I can still do if I want, or go to the appeal process if one believes that he hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Read also: What Nigerians should hold Tinubu to account for after May 29 (2)
He insisted that he didn’t do anything wrong and was only bringing to the public’s knowledge a crime of perjury committed by the president-elect.
“In this case, I clearly haven’t done anything wrong because according to Twitter’s old platform policies, the policy on privacy of information doesn’t apply when the subject is a public figure and when the post is done in the interest of the public,” he said.
An updated December 2022 rule on sharing personal documents of individuals on Twitter, the microbloging company stated that no individual had the right to share personal documents such as ID card, birth certificate, or any other sensitive materials without the express permission of the individual in this case a private individual.
The rule states: “You may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorisation and permission. We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivising others to do so.
“In addition, you may not share private media, such as images or videos of private individuals, without their consent. However, we recognise that there are instances where users may share images or videos of private individuals, who are not public figures, as part of a newsworthy event or to further public discourse on issues or events of public interest. In such cases, we may allow the media to remain on the platform.”
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