Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Friday says the National Broadcasting Commission will immediately commence the process of licensing all social media operations in Nigeria.
This comes after the minister announced that the Federal Government has suspended the operations of Twitter in Nigeria.
NBC is the official broadcast regulator of televisions the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The government’s action follows Twitter’s deletion of a ‘civil war’ post by the Nigerian President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), which the social media platform said violated its policies.
In a statement issued on Friday by the Special Assistant on Media to the minister, Segun Adeyemi, Mohammed said the measure is with immediate effect.
As of the time of filing this report, PUNCH reported that the minister is yet to state when the ban will be enforced while the social media platform is still in operation.
The statement titled, ‘FG Suspends Twitter’s Operations in Nigeria’, read, “The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
“The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
“The Minister said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.”
The Buhari regime has in recent time sought stiffer penalties for persons who “misuse social media”.
The Senate is currently deliberating on Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill 2019 commonly known as the anti-social media bill.
It seeks to criminalise the use of the social media in peddling false or malicious information.
The bill was sponsored by Senator Mohammed Musa, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress.
