Social networking consumers in Nigeria on Friday swiftly inundated Twitter to express their shock and outrage after the authorities declared the indefinite suspension of the technology giant's operations in the nation.
The government' move came after Twitter had suspended the accounts of President Muhammadu Buhari for breaking up the social networking firm's"abusive" behavior policy.
In a vague announcement on Twitter, that didn't explain when the movement would come into force, the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture explained the social networking platform was used for actions"capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate presence".
Responding beneath the ministry's article, many consumers pointed out that the irony of announcing such a move on Twitter itself.
'Fisayo Soyombo, freelance investigative journalist and ex-editor of TheCable, branded the government's conclusion"black", while human rights attorney Clement Nwankwo stated the"unconstitutional" move ought to be"promptly turned".
Gbenga Sesan, executive director of Paradigm Initiative, a pan-African social venture focusing on electronic inclusion and electronic rights,'' said the move"will simply lead to disgrace" and urged users to obtain a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to keep access.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International's Nigeria division condemned the move and called on governments to"instantly reverse the illegal suspension and other strategies to gag the press, repress the civic space, and undermine Nigerians' human rights". Some users mentioned a year's popular protests against police brutality, which saw young people mobilising through interpersonal websites beneath the #EndSARS hashtag, since the reason for the move.
