
<p id="h-topline"><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Nigeria blocked access to Twitter in the country indefinitely on Friday evening, shortly after the company deleted a tweet by the country’s president, adding Africa’s most populous country to a short list of nations that have barred their citizens from using Twitter:</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



<p><strong>Nigeria</strong>: The government&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/FMICNigeria/status/1400843062641717249" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claimed</a>&nbsp;Twitter was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nigerian-telecoms-firms-suspend-twitter-access-2021-06-05/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">banned</a>&nbsp;for “undermining Nigeria&#8217;s corporate existence,” and the Ministry of Justice has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57368535" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">promised to prosecute</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/05/africa/nigeria-prosecute-twitter-users-intl/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">violators</a>.</p>



<p><strong>China</strong>: Twitter and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/major-us-tech-companies-blocked-from-operating-in-china-2019-5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">several other</a>&nbsp;Western social media networks are barred from operating in China, and authorities&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/11/21/chinas-social-media-crackdown-targets-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">have spent several years</a>&nbsp;reportedly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-censors-go-old-school-to-clamp-down-on-twitter-a-knock-on-the-door/2019/01/04/1bd462e4-f331-11e8-9240-e8028a62c722_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cracking down</a>&nbsp;on people who manage to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/business/china-twitter-censorship-online.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">circumvent</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-is-now-sending-twitter-users-to-prison-for-posts-most-chinese-cant-see-11611932917" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Twitter ban</a>.</p>



<p><strong>North Korea</strong>: The government generally&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37426725" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">doesn’t allow</a>&nbsp;its citizens to access&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/01/north-korea-announces-blocks-on-facebook-twitter-and-youtube" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">foreign websites</a>, instead confining computer users to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/11309882/Internet-in-North-Korea-everything-you-need-to-know.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">heavily restricted</a>&nbsp;and walled-off intranet.</p>



<p><strong>Iran</strong>: Twitter and Facebook have been off-limits&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/technology/iran-protests-social-media.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">since 2009</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/02/02/will-twitter-ban-irans-supreme-leader-next/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">amid</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ali-khamenei-ap-top-news-elections-international-news-mahmoud-ahmadinejad-ab649e2190834e19b1f006f76493645f?utm_campaign=socialflow&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=ap" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">protests</a>&nbsp;and brutal crackdowns following former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election win, though many Iranians&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-10/iran-s-attempt-to-ban-instagram-is-doomed-to-fail" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">use VPNs</a>&nbsp;to dodge their country’s internet restrictions.</p>



<p><strong>Temporary Or Uncertain Bans</strong>: Egypt&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/26/egypt-blocks-social-media-websites" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cut off access</a>&nbsp;to Twitter during the 2011 Arab Spring protests, Turkey&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/03/21/turkey-bans-twitter-and-twitter-explodes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">banned Twitter</a>&nbsp;for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/04/world/middleeast/turkey-lifts-ban-on-twitter.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two weeks</a>&nbsp;in 2014, Uganda&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uganda-election/uganda-bans-social-media-ahead-of-presidential-election-idUSKBN29H0KH" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cut off social media</a>&nbsp;ahead of an election earlier this year, Pakistan has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-18138278" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sporadically</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/pakistan-socialmedia-block/update-2-pakistan-restores-social-media-apps-after-temporary-block-on-security-grounds-officials-idUSL1N2M90E0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blocked</a>&nbsp;social media sites for brief periods, and Turkmenistan has restricted access to Twitter according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/turkmenistan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">U.S. State Department</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



<p>Nigeria’s faceoff with Twitter started earlier this week, when President Muhammadu Buhari threatened to deal with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/world/africa/2021-04-06-separatist-group-attacks-nigerian-prison-as-more-than-1800-inmates-escape/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">separatist groups</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nigerian-police-launch-operation-southeast-quell-violence-it-blames-separatists-2021-05-18/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">accused of violence</a>&nbsp;“in the language they understand,” a reference to the country’s brutal civil war more than 50 years ago. Twitter blocked Buhari from tweeting for 12 hours and ordered him to delete the post, which it claimed violated the site’s rules, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57336571" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BBC reported</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h3>



<p>Many governments with Twitter bans still use the social media platform, often to disseminate information to foreign audiences. Chinese&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/china-diplomacy-twitter-7a6b8287-f7f0-4dc1-be8a-0eb146b111bc.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diplomats</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/12/chinas-wolf-warrior-diplomats-like-talk-tough/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">staffers</a>&nbsp;regularly use Twitter to lash out at the country’s critics, Iran’s&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/hassanrouhani?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">president</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JZarif?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">foreign minister</a>&nbsp;are both active on the site, and Nigeria announced its decision to ban Twitter via tweet.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h3>



<p>Buhari is the latest head of state to face sanctions from Twitter. Earlier this year, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">banned</a>&nbsp;former President Donald Trump and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-dubai-iran-united-arab-emirates-middle-east-b8767244595af326b423316a53635d86" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deleted an account</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/22/959736537/twitter-bans-account-linked-to-irans-supreme-leader" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ostensibly linked</a>&nbsp;to Iran’s supreme leader. Likewise, Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/06/facebook-response-to-oversight-board-recommendations-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said Friday</a>&nbsp;it will stop giving deference to politicians when deciding whether to delete newsworthy content that violates its rules.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/05/world/africa/nigeria-twitter-president.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nigeria Bans Twitter After President’s Tweet Is Deleted (New York Times)</a></p>



<p><strong><em>By Joe Walsh, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


SAFRICA-NIGERIA-DIPLOMACY

Nigeria Has Banned Twitter — Along With These Other Countries


<p id="h-topline"><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Twitter’s shares plunged 7% in pre-market trading on Monday after the platform permanently suspended President Donald Trump’s account Friday — Twitter was one of several sites to deplatform the president for his role in inciting violence among supporters Wednesday, including Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h4>



<p>After a review of Trump’s recent tweets, Twitter said it felt there was a “risk of further incitement of violence” from the president, who at the time was one of the most followed people on the platform.</p>



<p>The company then virtually chased Trump across the internet to take down posts as the president repeatedly tried to subvert the ban and tweet from other accounts he had access to, such as the official presidential @POTUS account and his presidential campaign account.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The president&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/08/president-trump-responds-to-twitter-account-ban-in-tweet-storm-from-potus-account/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claimed</a>&nbsp;he would set up his own social media network in the future.</p>



<p>Twitter also cracked down on the accounts of a number of Trump’s supporters who were encouraging violence and spreading misinformation, like lawyer L. Lin Wood who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2021/01/07/lin-wood-lawyer-closely-tied-to-trump-permanently-banned-from-twitter-after-claiming-capitol-siege-was-staged/?sh=44dc23851be3">suggested</a>&nbsp;the Wednesday insurrection was a coup “staged” by antifa protesters and described Vice President Mike Pence as a traitor and communist.&nbsp;</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



<p>After years of pressure to crack down on misinformation, conspiracy and hate speech from Trump, platforms are now abandoning him in droves after the president incited violence among his supporters Wednesday. Of these, Twitter is the most consequential. Twitter was Trump’s preferred way of engaging with the world around him and the president used the platform for everything from announcing policies and denouncing detractors to spreading hate, misinformation and lies. Trump’s communications channels are certainly narrowing — Facebook also banned the president and right wing app Parler has been practically&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/01/10/conservative-social-media-app-parler-is-pretty-much-dead/?sh=73e7a2a66a53">run off the internet</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h4>



<p>Twitter and San Francisco police are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-braces-for-possible-pro-Trump-15860077.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;preparing for a pro-Trump protest outside the company’s headquarters on Monday in the wake of the ban.&nbsp;</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h4>



<p>88 million. That’s how many Twitter followers Trump had when his account was suspended. This made him one of the most followed on the platform.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h4>



<p><a href="https://www.axios.com/platforms-social-media-ban-restrict-trump-d9e44f3c-8366-4ba9-a8a1-7f3114f920f1.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">All the platforms that have banned or restricted Trump so far</a> <em>(Axios)</em></p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/01/08/twitter-permanently-bans-trump/?sh=3969f0e3158d">Twitter Permanently Bans Trump</a> <em>(Forbes)</em></p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/01/10/conservative-social-media-app-parler-is-pretty-much-dead/?sh=73e7a2a66a53">Conservative Social Media App Parler Is Pretty Much Dead</a><em> (Forbes)</em></p>



<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-11/twitter-shares-fall-6-following-permanent-trump-ban?srnd=premium" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter Shares Fall 7% Following Permanent Trump Ban</a><em> (Forbes)</em></p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/01/10/parler-at-risk-of-going-offline-after-bans-from-amazon-apple-and-google/?sh=31fcce28312b">Parler At Risk Of Going Offline After Bans From Amazon, Apple And Google</a> <em>(Forbes)</em></p>



<p><em>-By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff</em></p>


Twitter Permanently Suspends President Donald Trump’s Twitter Account

Twitter Shares Down 7% In Pre-Market Trading After Trump Is Permanently Banned From The Platform


<p id="h-topline"><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Twitter has permanently suspended President Donald Trump’s account, the company announced Friday, a striking move that comes as the social media network faced growing pressure to remove him following the deadly Capitol riots earlier this week.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1283816163-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" data-id="48752" data-full-url="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1283816163-1-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2020/11/04/twitter-flags-trump-tweet-baselessly-accusing-biden-of-trying-to-steal-the-election/attachment/president-donald-trump-holds-election-night-event-at-the-white-house/" class="wp-image-48752" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1283816163-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1283816163-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1283816163-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1283816163-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1283816163-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1283816163-1-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="blocks-gallery-item__caption">WASHINGTON, DC &#8211; NOVEMBER 04: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on election night in the East Room of the White House in the early morning hours of November 04, 2020 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></li></ul></figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h4>



<p>Twitter said it decided to ban the president “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” after a review of his recent tweets.</p>



<p>Though Twitter has long been criticized for not doing enough to stem the spread of misinformation and hate speech on Trump’s account, the last few days have ratcheted up pressure from prominent figures in tech, Democrats, as well as Twitter’s own employees, for a permanent ban.</p>



<p>Up until this point, Twitter had only locked Trump’s account for 12 hours over tweets where he said he “loved” the rioters and explained the insurrection as “things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously &amp; viciously stripped away.”</p>



<p>After the suspension expired, Trump used Twitter to call his supporters “American Patriots,” say the MAGA movement will have a “GIANT VOICE long into the future” and indicate he would skip Joe Biden’s inauguration.</p>



<p>Twitter said those tweets prompted the ban because they are being interpreted by his supporters as a veiled plan to “continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election,” especially considering “plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter.”</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1347684877634838528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1347684877634838528%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fembedly.forbes.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Ftype%3Dtext2Fhtmlkey%3Dcfc0fb0733504c77aa4a6ac07caaffc7schema%3Dtwitterurl%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FTwitterSafety%2Fstatus%2F13476848776348385283Fs3D20image%3D
</div></figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



<p>“President Trump’s statement that he will not be attending the Inauguration is being received by a number of his supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate and is seen as him disavowing his previous claim made via two Tweets (<a href="https://twitter.com/DanScavino/status/1347103015493361664" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/DanScavino/status/1347103016311259136" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2</a>) by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scavino, that there would be an ‘orderly transition’ on January 20th,” Twitter said in its assessment of his final tweets.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">CHIEF CRITIC</h4>



<p>Trump immediately tweeted from the @POTUS account that Twitter’s employees were coordinating with Democrats and the “Radical Left” to silence him. But moments later Twitter removed those posts.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The president tweeted this from the <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> account but the tweets have already been taken down by Twitter. <a href="https://t.co/pRqpFw8hYY">pic.twitter.com/pRqpFw8hYY</a></p>&mdash; Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1347718683351601152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



<p>Trump’s Twitter account was his primary way of communicating with the world. He’s used it to announce policies, go after critics, spread falsehoods and, most recently, promote conspiracy theories about election fraud. But after years of pressure to clean up its platform, Twitter began cracking down on Trump this year by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-twitter-keep-fact-checking-trump-voting-mail-he-s-n1241339" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fact-checking</a>&nbsp;false tweets about mail-in voting, Covid-19 and the election results. The company’s actions angered Trump so much he launched a crusade against tech’s legal shield, Section 230, claiming that social media companies are biased against conservatives.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h4>



<p>Trump isn’t the only person who got permanently suspended in the wake of the deadly insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter also <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/01/08/twitter-bans-sidney-powell-mike-flynn-for-sharing-qanon-conspiracy-theories/?sh=1eea67932d66">removed </a>several accounts that pushed QAnon conspiracy theories, including Sidney Powell, Mike Flynn, and former 8kun administrator Ron Watkins.</p>



<p><em>-By Rachel Sandler, Forbes Staff</em></p>


Tag: Twitter Ban

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Nigeria Has Banned Twitter — Along With These Other Countries

Twitter Shares Down 7% In Pre-Market Trading After Trump Is Permanently Banned From The Platform

Twitter Permanently Bans Trump