After receiving a positive note upon various conditions, Nigeria has finally lifted a seven-month-long ban on Twitter Inc., mainly in the West African nation.
According to a statement while disclosing the end of the suspension issued by the National Information Technology Development Agency, or NITDA states that “Twitter is planning to establish its legal presence in Nigeria and appoint a national representative to handle the issues with the government. When necessary.”
The Nigerian government blocked the Twitter application’s access back on June 5, after the company deleted one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweets for violating its rules. As per NITDA, the social media platform was halted only because “unscrupulous elements” used it for “pestilent purposes and criminal activities, propagating fake news, and polarizing Nigerians along tribal and religious lines.”
NITDA further added that the resolution would also provide “economic and training opportunities” as the San Fransisco-based social media platform “continues to consider expanding its presence in the Nigerian region.”
Twitter planned to place its first product and engineering team on the African continent back in April in the Ghana region, applauding the nation as “a supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet.”
Meanwhile, while welcoming the restoration of its services in the region, Twitter said, “We are deeply committed to Nigeria.”
Whereas many Nigerian people continued the usage of Twitter via virtual private networks, the ban has caused considerable frustration and disturbance among the citizens, mainly among the country’s predominantly younger generation people. Twitter was ranked as the region’s sixth-most used social media application pre-ban.
As per the estimates by the internet watchdog group Netblocks Cost of Shutdown Tools, “the 222-days ban on Twitter has estimated to cost the economy of Africa’s most population-containing nation around $1.5 billion.”
