The Federal Government of Nigeria has ordered the National Broadcasting Commission to commence forthwith the process of licensing all social media outfits in the country.
This was contained in a statement on Friday by the Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed.
In the same breath, the FG also barred indefinitely the operations of social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria, citing persistent use of the platform for activities capable of undermining the country’s corporate existence.
Mohammed added that the action was taken in the best interest of the country and in line with NBC’s regulation of all OTT and social media operations in the country.
The statement reads, “The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
“The minister has directed the National Broadcasting Commission to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.”
Earlier, on June 2, the microblogging site had deleted a tweet where President Muhammadu Buhari threatened genocidal violence against the Igbo over insecurity, saying the message violated its conditions.
The FG, through the minister, had described Twitter’s action as unjust and biased.
