Nigeria directs broadcasters to delete Twitter

Nigeria has directed all TV and radio stations to “suspend the patronage of Twitter immediately,” describing its use as unpatriotic, the country’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) said Monday.The government of Africa’s most populous country said it was suspending the platform on Friday, two days after the US social media giant deleted a tweet from the president’s account for violating its rules.”Broadcasting stations are hereby advised to de-install twitter handles and desist from using Twitter as a source… of information gathering for news,” NBC’s director Armstrong Idachaba wrote in a statement.”It would be unpatriotic for any broadcaster in Nigeria to continue to patronise the suspended Twitter as a source of its information.”More than 39 million Nigerians have a Twitter account, according to NOI polls, a public opinion and research organisation.Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama summoned diplomats for a meeting Monday in the capital Abuja, after the EU and several countries issued a joint statement voicing concerns with the Twitter ban.”Banning systems of expression is not the answer,” the EU, US, Britain, Canada and Ireland said in the statement late on Saturday.The statement added it was “precisely the moment when Nigeria needs to foster inclusive dialogue and expression of opinions, as…
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