Twitter deletes President Buhari’s post, Nigerian government responds
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On June 2, 2021, social media platform Twitter deleted the recent post of the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, following multiple user requests to suspend the President’s account. The now-deleted post of Muhammadu Buhari was originally published on June 1, 2021 and read: “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.” In the post, President Buhari referred to an alarming surge of attacks on election offices in Nigeria. Within the past few weeks, 12 offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission, an electoral body overseeing elections in Nigeria, were either set on fire or vandalized. The most recent attack took place on May 30, 2021, in the southeastern state of Imo, destroying the voting facility and equipment. In the light of the increased violence in the country, President Buhari reminded the public of the devastating effects of the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970, also known as the Biafran War, fought between the federal government of Nigeria and the southeastern secessionist state of Biafra.
Following the publication of the post, many Twitter users reported President Buhari’s account, claiming that the post violates Twitter usage policy of “expressing intentions of self-harm or suicide” and “threatening violence against an individual or a group of people.” In response to these reports, Twitter deleted the President’s post, noting that it “violated the Twitter Rules.”
On June 2, 2021, the Minister of Information and Culture of Nigeria, Lai Mohammed, reacted to Twitter’s decision to delete President Buhari’s post by pointing out that Mr. President is free to express his views on any situation that he feels concerned about, as Twitter’s rules are not universal. Lai Mohammed also accused Twitter of selective bias for not deleting the posts under the ‘EndSARS’ hashtag, an anti-police-brutality movement in Nigeria in November 2020, supporting the looting and destruction of public and private properties.
For more information, please see https://guardian.ng/news/
