Lai Mohammed: Suspending Twitter was one of the toughest decisions I made as a minister

Lai Mohammed, former minister of information and culture, says the suspension of microblogging and social networking platform Twitter, now known as X, was one of the toughest decisions he took while in office. In June 2021, the federal government announced the “indefinite” suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”. However, in his new book “Headlines & Soundbites: Media Moments That Defined An Administration”, launched in Abuja on Wednesday, the former minister offered insights into how the decision to suspend the platform was taken. In chapter 14 of the 601-page book, Mohammed cited two reasons why shutting down Twitter at the time was a tough decision for him. The chapter, “Silencing the bird: The story of Nigeria’s Twitter suspension”, gives a detailed account of how the government reached an agreement with the owners of the social networking platform to resume operations after the blackout. “The decision to suspend Twitter (now X) was one of the toughest decisions I made as a minister, for two reasons,” he wrote. “First, the impact it would have on Nigerians who used the platform to advertise their goods and services
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