The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has revealed that the microblogging platform, Twitter, has agreed to all the conditions presented to it by the Federal Government regarding its operations in Nigeria.
This follows a dialogue between the Federal Government’s team and Twitter in the wake of the suspension of the social media platform in Nigeria by the Government over allegations of double standards, among others.
This was disclosed by Keyamo while appearing on a Channels Television Programme, Sunday Politics. Keyamo who is also a member of a committee set up to review the operations of the microblogging platform since its ban in the country, pointed out that the committee has made significant progress so far.
Keyamo in his statement said, “The reason why the president took that step is to recalibrate our relationship with Twitter and not to drive them away from our country.
“That recalibration, we have started it and the President graciously added me to the committee. We also set up a technical committee to interface with Twitter and come up with a lot of conditions for them to fulfill for us to lift the suspension.
“It was Twitter that reached out to the Federal Government to say they want to know what and what they can do to straighten up the relationship with the Federal Government and so, we have gone far but I may not, at this forum, let out a lot but we gave them a lot of conditions and they have agreed to all the conditions.’’
It can be recalled that earlier in June, the Federal Government suspended the operations of Twitter indefinitely in the country citing double standards by the microblogging and social media platform, and the persistent use of the platform for activities that were capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
The suspension was announced despite public outcry, days after Twitter deleted a post by President Muhammadu Buhari for allegedly violating its policy.
The Federal Government later set up a dialogue team led by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, to interface with Twitter on the way forward.
President Muhammadu Buhari in August directed that the suspension on Twitter be lifted but only if the conditions are met to allow Nigerian citizens continue the use of the platform for business and positive engagements.
