Twitter Ban Intact As Nigeria Loses N220.36bn
The Nigerian Communications Commission has disclosed that the Twitter ban in Nigeria is still very much intact.
This was disclosed by the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde. He said that there had been no communications from the Ministry of Information to lift the ban.
The NCC had sent a memo to Mobile Network Operators and Internet Service Providers to block access to Twitter for the ban imposed by the Federal Government to take effect.
This, after some Nigerians had on Wednesday, September 1, reported gaining access to the app without Virtual Private Networks on their laptops.
A source in an ISP company told The Punch, “The way blocking works when it comes to the network is, a specific site or server or URL will be put under a blacklist. Or an instruction will be given to block traffic going to or coming from a certain server. So, a router that sits in between serves as a blockade rather than works as a go-through; it will block it.
“Depending on the technology deployed, there might be loopholes. A problem could be as regards implementation. It can create a loophole, a human error.”
The Federal Government indefinitely banned Twitter on June 4, days after the microblogging site deleted a tweet by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), which violated its rules.
The Federal Government had since told a Federal High Court in Lagos that it had not stopped Nigerians from using Twitter.
The President set up a committee consisting of five ministers to negotiate with Twitter with the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, as the head of the committee.
Recently Mohammed announced that the committee negotiating with Twitter would soon arrive at an agreement.
He had said, “Everything will be ironed out with Twitter within a few days or weeks.”
One of the conditions set by the government for lifting the ban is that Twitter should register with the Companies and Allied Matters Act, and establish a physical presence in Nigeria.
According to Statista, Nigeria has about 33 million active social media users, with about 26 percent on Twitter.
Nigeria has lost N220.36bn since the ban. This figure was calculated based on the NetBlocks Cost of the Shutdown Tool.
According to the tool, it costs Nigeria’s economy N103.17m ($250,600) every hour to ban Twitter. It has been 2,136 hours since the FG banned Twitter.