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Twitter Yet To Meet Some Conditions Despite Lifting Of Ban In Nigeria

January 14, 2022

President Muhammadu Buhari's administration had on Wednesday announced that it had lifted the ban on Twitter.

Twitter is yet to meet some of the conditions listed by the Nigerian Government before lifting the ban on the micro-blogging platform, a report has shown.

President Muhammadu Buhari's administration had on Wednesday announced that it had lifted the ban on Twitter.

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A presidential committee comprising all relevant government agencies that engaged and worked directly with Twitter had given some conditions to the social media platform before the ban could be lifted.

The condition listed by the Nigerian Government committee that interacted with Twitter included that the platform would open an office in the country, have a representative, register with the Corporate Affairs Commission, and get National Broadcasting Commission’s licence.

Others included: fair tax payment and dealing with sensitive content to national security and cohesion.

Twitter would also train Nigerian IT personnel and strategic intelligence officers to report abuse and infractions noticed by the government.

Chairman of the Technical Committee for Nigeria-Twitter Engagement and Director-General National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi Abdullahi, said Twitter had agreed this arrangement.

He also said Twitter had agreed to set ‘a legal entity in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2022.’

In addition to setting up a local office or a legal entity in the country, he said Twitter had agreed to appoint a ‘designated country representative’ to hold talks with the Nigerian government when required.

“Twitter has agreed to comply with applicable tax obligations on its operations under Nigerian law. Twitter has agreed to enrol Nigeria in its Partner Support and Law Enforcement Portals,” the statement read.

But an investigation by the ICIR showed that some of the conditions were yet to be met despite reversal of the ban.

The report showed that Twitter was not yet registered in Nigeria.

The development means the social media app may not have met all the conditions listed by the Nigerian Government before the ban was suspended.