June 5, 2021

Nigeria Bans Twitter Just Days After the Company Deleted One of Its President’s Tweets

The company said in a statement it was looking into the “deeply concerning” suspension.

Bayo Omoboriowo, Nigeria State House/AP

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In a move that would make Donald Trump’s mouth water, Nigeria banned Twitter within its borders—just days after the social media company deleted a tweet written by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigerian information minister Lai Mohammed said that the move was the result of “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence” but did not explain specifics of the suspension, including how long it would last.

Millions of Nigerians use the platform, and some used virtual private networks to bypass the ban and post about their frustrations on Twitter.

In the deleted tweet from Tuesday, Buhari compared Nigeria’s civil war decades ago to attacks on offices of the country’s national electoral commission. According to the People’s Gazette, a Nigerian news outlet, many people saw the tweet as a threat of genocide against the country’s Igbo people. Twitter said that the tweet violated its “abusive behavior” policy.

The company said in a statement to Reuters that it is looking into the “deeply concerning” suspension in Nigeria.

Nigerian officials had previously criticized Twitter. In April, Mohammed expressed frustration when the company chose Ghana for its first African office, and called for “regulation” to deal with “fake news” after people in the country documented and protested police brutality on the platform.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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