Nigeria’s government said Friday it was suspending Twitter indefinitely within its borders, a day after the social media giant censored a controversial tweet President Muhammadu Buhari sent about threatening to punish regional secessionists.
Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed said the government of Africa’s most populous nation had taken the step because of “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence,” according to an announcement made by the government on Twitter.
“You’re using Twitter to suspend Twitter? Are you not mad?” one user tweeted in response.
It is not clear how the government will implement the suspension, as Nigerian users were still able to access Twitter late Friday.
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On Wednesday, Twitter said Buhari’s tweet, which referred to the Nigerian civil war in the 1960s that killed over 1 million people, violated its “abusive behavior” policy, which led to a 12-hour suspension of his account.
“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” Buhari tweeted on Tuesday, which was perceived as threatening.
In recent months, separatists have been accused of attacking police and government buildings, which Buhari has vowed to respond to and prompted his tweet.
Mohammed bashed Twitter for deleting the president’s content.
“The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very suspicious,” he said.
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Twitter is investigating the “deeply concerning” block on its operations by the Nigerian government and “will provide updates when we know more,” the technology giant said in a statement.
