The Nigerian government has been asked to rescind its suspension of Twitter’s operations in the country and to ensure the Internet, as well as social media platforms, are open, free and accessible.
The call was contained in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari and signed by over 35 different organisations.
The Ministers of Information and Culture, Communications and Digital Economy, and of Justice were copied in the letter that was made available to Financial Street on Saturday by Paradigm Initiative.
The organisations also urged the government to engage all stakeholders, including the civil society, academics, human rights institutions and the private sector, on the best approach to social media regulation and put measurable and specific processes in place to promote, protect and fulfil all human rights online and offline.
“We, the undersigned organisations working to ensure that human rights are protected, write to appeal to you to rescind the indefinite suspension on the social media network, Twitter, which was announced by the Federal Government of Nigeria on June 4, 2021.
“Twitter, just like many other digital and social media platforms, has become a space for Nigerians to communicate, seek and disseminate information, engage in public debates and legitimate businesses. Like many other governments across the globe, the Nigerian government has leveraged social media platforms to issue critical public information.
“A recent demonstration of this is the use of Twitter by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control to issue information related to the COVID 19 pandemic. Currently, the NCDC Twitter account has a following of 1.1 million; this is an acknowledgment of the importance of social media in reaching a significant proportion of the Nigerian population,” the organisations pointed out.
They noted that since the suspension of Twitter services, Nigerians had not only been impacted socio-economically, but also experienced violations of the freedom to exercise their human rights online.
In assessing the requirements for necessity, legality, legitimacy and proportionality, the organisations noted that there was currently no clear and sufficiently precise law in Nigeria that provides for such action by the Nigerian government.
The organisations also said the Nigerian government was yet to demonstrate how the suspension protects the rights of others, show that it used the ‘least intrusive means’ of addressing the harm purportedly caused before the suspension, and failed to demonstrate that its actions to suspend Twitter’s operations was not excessive and over-reaching.
The letter was undersigned by Abdikhayr Hussein, Bareedo Platform Somalia, Access Now, AfriSIG Alumni, African Academic Network on Internet Policy, African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms Coalition, Africa Internet Rights Alliance, BudgIT Foundation, Change Tanzania movement, Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa, Equip Africa Integrated Development Initiative, Give1Project, Gambia, Global Voices, International Press Centre, Internet Protection Society (Russia), Internet Society, Nigeria chapter, INTIC4DEV – Institute des TIC pour le Développement (AfRALO ALS), Jonction, Sénégal and Kathleen Ndongmo, Open Internet for Democracy Fellow (Member, Netrights Africa Coalition and the Africa Digital Rights Network – ADRN).
Others are KICTANet, Kofi Yeboah, Fellow, Paradigm Initiative, Lukman Mahami Adams, PreciseNews, Ghana, Media Rights Agenda, Nanjala Nyabola, Independent, Olévié Ayaovi KOUAMI, member of ISOC Sénégal chapter, Open Observatory of Network Interference, PEN America, Ranking Digital Rights, Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, Software Freedom Law Center, India. Susan Atim, Member ISOC Uganda Chapter, TechSocietal, TOR Project, Witness Africa and Zaina Foundation, Tanzania.
