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Fri, Mar

100 Days: Twitter Pleads With FG Over Ban

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100 days after the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) banned Twitter in the country, the microblogging platform has lost about 23.44 per cent out of its market share. The company before the ban had a market share of 25.52 per cent in Nigeria, but this has drastically reduced to 2.8 per cent as of August 2021. The company has however opened talks with the Government so as to resolve the ban.

According to Twitter on Monday, "Discussion with the Nigerian government have been respectful and productive, we look forward to seeing the service restored very soon

"We continue to engage with the Nigerian government to discuss why Twitter has been blocked and ways to resolve the matter. We are committed to charting a path forward to the restoration of Twitter for everyone in Nigeria"

It can be recalled that on the 19th of August 2020, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed that from the 10 demands put forward to lift Twitter suspension, the social networking platform had acceded to seven. The minister further stated that “We believe that even the other three outstanding demands are not really about whether they agreed or not but about timing and scheduling. That is what gave me the confidence that we are getting nearer to an agreement.”

However, prominent Nigerians still urge the federal government to review its actions. Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a social enterprise, in conjunction with Enough is Enough Nigeria (EiE); Media Rights Agenda (MRA), and Socio-Economic Rights And Accountability Project (SERAP), organised a press conference on the Twitter ban in Lagos.

Executive Director, PIN, Gbenga Sesan, said after reviewing the reality on the ground, Nigeria should not gloat of twitter’s loss of market share. Twitter did not only lose market share but advert revenues and other benefits its huge numbers in Nigeria gave it. The growth of the micro-blogging platform in the country means that many people are benefitting and such benefits would ultimately rub off positively on the economy.

For him, top politicians are still tweeting, routing their accounts through the Virtual Private Network, VPN where the benefits will not accrue to the country.

Also, social media influencers who use the medium to generate revenue are still groaning under the negative effects of the ban on their economy.

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