Twitter, the microblogging platform has met seven out of the 10 demands that the Federal Government of Nigeria has made to lift the suspension on the social network company.
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture said this in Washington DC during his ongoing engagement with various global media outlets, global think tanks and influencers.
According to a News Agency of Nigeria’s (NAN) report, the engagement is to enable the minister to put across the correct narratives about what is happening in Nigeria, showcase government achievements and present challenges facing the country.
During his respective interaction with Reuters, Washington Post, and Bloomberg Quicktake, a live streaming news service, the minister said there is an end in sight of amicable settlement of the ban.
“We believe that even the other three outstanding demands are not really about whether they agreed or not but about timing and scheduling.
“That is what gave me the confidence that we are getting nearer to an agreement,’’ he said.
The minister said, among the demands made of Twitter was for the platform to register as a Nigerian company. This means it will pay taxes from revenue made in the country and ensure that harmful content is regulated.
Read also: Twitter ban: The crippling of a societal watchdog
“As recently as last week, we exchange correspondent with Twitter, and when I left home a few days ago, we are expecting a reply from them.
“It is rather, more left with Twitter to respond to grey areas that we asked them to look into.
“We are not inflexible in our negotiation with Twitter because we recognise both the positive and negative aspects of social media,’’ he said.
Mohammed said Twitter ban had been very effective in the country because they see less of harmful and injurious content on social media.
He said other social media platforms had been more conscious and alert to injurious contents likely to threaten national security.
The minister added that from the talks they had with Twitter when the platform resumed operations it would not be business as usual.
He said taking a cue from the experience with Twitter all social media platforms must comply to set down regulations
The minister said the claim that Twitter operation was suspended because it deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet was a mischievous interpretation not grounded in facts.
“Twitter operation was suspended because they were threatening national security, pitching one ethnic group against the other, interfering recklessly in the internal affairs of our country.
“It renders its platform as a platform of choice for those who are preaching separatism and lend their resources to protesters against the police without understanding the nuances of our culture,
“They raised fund to support EndSARS protesters which led to the killing of 57 innocent civilians, 37 police officers, six soldiers in addition to billions of dollars of destruction in property,’’ he said.
He reiterated that the platform was suspended because their operations became inimical to national unity.
