Global social media giant, Twitter, has said access to its platform is a ‘human right’.
The assertion follows a recent censorship of the social media platform by the Nigerian government.
The federal government of the most populous nation in Africa, Nigeria, banned Twitter this week after the organisation deleted a fiery tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari that many perceived as a veiled threat against violent separatists in the nation’s southeast.
Th government’s information wing responded by banning the social media platform from the country.
“The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria,” the country’s Federal Ministry of Information and Culture tweeted Friday night.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, also announced that the government would begin licensing social media platforms and “OTT,” or over-the-top, operations, which offer content directly to viewers via the internet.
However, Twitter declared that a free and open Internet is “an essential human right in modern society” Saturday morning in response to the ban.
“We are deeply concerned by the blocking of Twitter in Nigeria,” Twitter’s Public Policy division tweeted in response. “Access to the free and #OpenInternet is an essential human right in modern society. We will work to restore access for all those in Nigeria who rely on Twitter to communicate and connect with the world. #KeepitOn.”
The declaration immediately drew responses from Twitter users who noted that the social media giant’s policies allow for suspending and banning users – including former President Donald Trump.
“Access to the free & #OpenInternet is an essential human right in modern society… unless you’re Donald Trump. Or reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. Or discussing the biology of gender. Or the murderous dictator of Iran. Or a Chinese Communist Party peon lying about COVID,” conservative author Liz Wheeler wrote in response to Twitter’s tweet.
Another user tweeted the meme of a comic book hero sweating over which button to choose – “Access to Twitter is a human right,” or “Ban these accounts for saying things I don’t like.”
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri