Tolu Ogunlesi, special assistant
on digital/new media to President Muhammadu Buhari, says the ban on Twitter in
Nigeria is a win-win situation for the country and the microblogging site.
The federal government had, in
June, suspended the operations of Twitter indefinitely over “persistent use of
the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate
existence”.
The ban was announced two days
after Twitter deleted Buhari’s tweet wherein he threatened to treat Nigerians
“misbehaving” in “the language they understand”.
Speaking on Wednesday, in an interview on Cable News Network (CNN), Ogunlesi said a committee set up to negotiate with Twitter has made progress.
He said the ban will be lifted as
soon as the conditions given by the federal government have been met.
“The ban is a win-win for Twitter
and the government of Nigeria; that’s the view I get from the negotiations and
I am happy about that,” he said.
“We are indeed very close to a
resolution and you know one thing I must say is that the media seems to often
paint a picture of some sort of adversarial negotiation or contest of sorts,
but it has been a very amicable, very positive conversation.
“I think both sides have benefited from
listening to each other and then sharing their views, and I think we are very
close. During the Independence Day speech of the president on the 1st of
October, he did actually say he’s approved the lifting of the ban as long as
the ministerial committee set up is happy that the conditions that have been
outlined have been fulfilled by Twitter. So, we are very close, no doubt about
that.
“I look at the conditions from
short term, medium and long term. For example, with taxation, the condition is
not that you must start paying taxes. The condition is that you must commit to
having a conversation with the tax authorities about paying taxes. It’s not an
insistence on paying taxes today; it’s more about commitment and timelines.”
When asked if the social
networking service was suspended over Buhari’s tweet, Ogunlesi, who was a
regular user of the microblogging site before the ban, said the president’s
tweet didn’t violate Twitter’s terms.
“The context is a lot bigger than
that, but of course, from a media point of view, you find that usually — and
this is not just in Nigeria — there’s often an event or something that happens
that kind of triggers something else,” he said.
“I do not believe that that tweet violated the
terms of Twitter. The president spoke in his capacity as the president of
Nigeria, and it was a law enforcement message. I think it’s perfectly valid for
the president of Nigeria to speak, and he was contextual and specific. It was
not a message to law-abiding Nigerians; it was a message to people who have
chosen to inflict violence on other Nigerians.”
He also said the federal
government is keen on welcoming technology and providing an enabling ground,
adding that tech companies must ensure that their platforms are not used in
ways that undermine democracy, peace and security.
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