VPN No Longer required to access Twitter as FGN lifts Suspension
Following a seven month ban on the operations of Twitter, the Nigerian federal government has lifted the suspension.
This was made known in a statement in Abuja by the Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the Chairman, Technical Committee, Nigeria-Twitter Engagement who is also the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
According to the DG, the decision was approved with effect following a memo forwarded by Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Kashifu said that the major reason for the ban was owing to the continuous use of the social media platform by some unethical members of the society to achieve nefarious activities while causing an ethnic and religious divide among Nigerians.
He continued by stating that the government had to take the necessary steps to address issues bothering on national security in the country.
The DG said that the steps of resolving the standstill between Twitter Inc. and the Federal government had helped to lay the basis for a mutual agreement that benefits those parties.
Part of the statement reads thus, "Twitter has agreed to meet all the conditions set by the FGN. Consequently, the FGN and Twitter have decided on an execution timeline, which has started this week. Our engagement with the social media platform opens a new chapter in global digital diplomacy and sets a new operational template for Twitter to come back stronger for the benefit of Nigerians.
The FG said the resolutions agreed with Twitter are the establishment of a legal entity in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2022, which would be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission and the appointment of a designated country representative to interface with Nigerian authorities."
"Twitter has agreed to comply with applicable tax obligations on its operations under Nigerian law and has agreed to enrol Nigeria in its Partner Support and Law Enforcement Portals," the statement added.
Kashifu announced that following the agreements, the federal government will lift the ban on Twitter operations in the country from Thursday, January 13, 2022, by 12:00 a.m, thus users will no longer require the use of VPN to access the social media platform.
Users are enjoined to avoid activities that drive division and incite violence on the social media platform.
Techbuild's position
As a media platform, we at Techbuild.africa didn't relent on our effort to join in adding voices on the lifting of the ban.
We projected the thoughts of Paradigm Inititiave, ISN and various other bodies on lifting the suspension.
We explored other thoughts including:
Nigeria Twitter Ban and the Pursuit of Internet Sovereignty
What happens next after the ban?
Time to reverse the ban [ICT Clinic]
In addition we also discussed 4 socio-economic implications of not lifting the ban.
Techbuild will continue to lend its voices to socio-economic situations in the country as far as technology related issues are concerned.