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Twitter users in Nigeria were allowed to access the platform for the first time in seven months last week, after the government there reversed its controversial ban on the social media site.
Nigeria’s government ordered telecom companies to block access to the site in June, after Twitter removed a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari seen to be inciting ethnic violence, for breaching its “abusive behavior” policy. The administration retaliated against the social media platform, which is widely used by journalists and activists in the country, blocking the site from its mobile networks and condemning what it called “activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence” on the platform.
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Nigeria lifted the ban on Jan. 13 after it secured Twitter’s commitment to opening a local office, appointing a head for its business in the country and paying domestic taxes. Months before the ban, Twitter chose Ghana as the location of its first African office, overlooking the continent’s biggest market, Nigeria.
While Nigerians can now access Twitter without using a virtual private network (VPN), a number of other countries continue to block access to mainstream social media sites.
China
Meta-owned Facebook and Twitter have been blocked in China since 2009, as part of a government crackdown against activists following deadly riots in Xinjiang province. China’s restriction of foreign media platforms and censorship of non-governmental material has been dubbed the Great Firewall of China. Meta’s messaging platform Whatsapp and its photo- and video-sharing app Instagram are also blocked.
WeChat, a multi-purpose messaging system developed by Tencent, is the widely used alternative in China. The app has been subsidized by the government since its creation in 2011, and is obliged to share users’ data with the state. WeChat has a monopoly on user data, including mini-apps to pay bills, book doctors appointments and file police…
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Source : time
