The Federal Government of Nigeria, has disclosed that it is set to amend relevant statutes and codes to enforce the operational conditions of Twitter in Nigeria on other social media platforms.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this in Cairo at a meeting with Egypt Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Dr Amr Talaat.
The meeting was on the sidelines of a bilateral discussion with Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) on how Nigeria can access funding to support its growing creative industry.
According to reports, Mohammed led some private sector stakeholders involved in Digital Switch Over (DSO), to Afreximbank to assist them on how they can source funds to complete the wholly private sector financially driven project.
In Mohammed’s interaction with Talaat, he disclosed that Nigeria was amending its National Broadcasting Act and Broadcasting Code to ensure that all online platforms operating in the country comply with stipulated conditions.
Mr. Mohammed posited that the decision was borne out of the recent development on the suspension of Twitter operations in the country and the agreement reached before the suspension was lifted.
“The beauty of the engagement with Twitter is immense. Whatever applies to Twitter will apply to all other social media platforms, be it WhatsApp, Facebook or any other. That is why we will be having a retreat to amend the NBC Act and the NBC Code to incorporate these new gains we made with the engagement with Twitter”.
Lai Mohammed
On the agreement reached with Twitter, which the Minister averred would apply to other online platforms, he noted that the microblogging site agreed to open the Nigerian office within the first quarter of 2022. He mentioned that twitter agreed to appoint a designated country representative within one month of lifting its suspension while its global policy team would also be available to engage directly with the government.
The minister disclosed that twitter agreed to meet all regulatory demands, including the Companies and Allied Matters Act, Nigeria Communication Commission laws and rules and National Broadcasting Commission Code.
“Twitter has agreed to comply with all payable taxes as they are operating under the Nigerian laws and this they agreed to do within one week of restoring their operations. Twitter agreed to immediately work with the Federal Government in the area of code of conduct which is in line with global best practices. It agreed to immediately enroll Nigerians in its Law Enforcement portals and Partners Support Portal.
“The law enforcement portal will provide dedicated channels for the Nigerian law enforcement agencies to escalate reports on contents that violate the code of conduct or the national laws. Similarly, the partner support portal provides a direct channel for the government to engage twitter staff to manage prohibited contents”.
Lai Mohammed
The Minister explained to Talaat that Twitter operations were not suspended in Nigeria because they wrote something about the President as being carried about in certain quarters. He clarified that the operation was suspended because Twitter became the platform of choice for those who wanted to destabilize Nigeria, and create disunity.
“We met with a barrage of knocks, we were accused of running an authoritarian government, trying to infringe on freedom of the press, violating the constitution, but we were sure in our mind of what we were doing. We are glad that after seven months of serious engagement with Twitter, we can say that what we achieved is what the suspension of the operations of Twitter was all about”.
Lai Mohammed
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