Nigeria’s Twitter Ban Provokes Outcry
Nigeria’s media and activists worry of their country is slipping into repression after the authorities suspended Twitter in Africa’s most populous nation, where hyper-connected youth embraced the platform as a skill of protest.
The choice on Friday, days after Twitter deleted a statement from President Muhammadu Buhari, has already provoked worldwide outcry over freedom of expression and calls for protests on line and on the street.
“It is very essential we push lower back and fast, due to the fact they may want to go further,” stated a social media govt at a principal TV station who requested to stay anonymous.
More than a hundred and twenty million Nigerians have get admission to to the internet, and almost forty million of them have a Twitter account — 20 percentage of the population, in accordance to Lagos-based researcher NOI Polls.
France, with the aid of comparison, has solely eight million Twitter users.
Nigeria’s numbers are defined in section by means of its massive and youthful population, however additionally the have an impact on of its diaspora, and the on-line repute of its movie and Afropop stars, stated Manon Fouriscot, co-founder of the Afrique Connectees consultancy.
Studies additionally exhibit that extra than different social media platforms, Nigerians “use Twitter to supply voice to the unvoiced and engage government on problems that they feel are going wrong in the country in real-time”, in accordance to NOI Polls.