Telecommunications companies in Nigeria including MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9Mobile have started blocking access to the microblogging site, Twitter, Pearlsnews has gathered.
The telcos said they received a directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission to block access to Twitter in the country following the suspension by the Federal Government on Friday.
The Nigerian Twitterati woke up on Saturday encountering difficulty in accessing their Twitter handles while some navigated the hurdle using virtual private networks.
Mobile network operators in the country under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, however, made it clear that they have started blocking access to Twitter in a statement issued on Saturday.
The statement which was obtained by Goldmyne was titled, ‘Order to Suspend access to Twitter’. It was jointly signed by ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo; and ALTON Executive Secretary, Gbolahan Awonuga.
Consequently, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who had accused Twitter of double standards, announced the suspension of the microblogging site on Friday, citing the “persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”.
Nigeria had about 33 million active social media users as of January 2021. WhatsApp is the most popular platform used in the country, with over 90 million users according to Statista. According to Statista, about 61.4 per cent of Nigerian social media users use Twitter, 86.2 per cent use Facebook, 81.6 per cent use YouTube, 73.1 per cent use Instagram, and 67.2 per cent use Facebook Messenger.
