The Nigerian government has again stated the major reason for the suspension of a ban imposed on the microblogging site, Twitter, for June 2021 to January 2021.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, at a news conference in Abuja Monday, said the suspension followed robust negotiations between the Nigerian government and Twitter’s executive members.
This was to clarify a claim traced to American programmer, Peiter Zatko, that the platform begged Nigerian government to lift the ban and agreed to operate within some conditions it outlined.
Zatko in a report submitted to the US Federal Trade Commission under Whistleblower Aid alleged the Nigerian government went ahead to claim to be in negotiations with Twitter executive members following the suspension in June last year.
“Twitter’s failure to correct the false record on many reported non-existent discussions with the Nigerian government permitted Nigeria to negotiate unilaterally through media and dictate unfavourable terms for final resolutions,” the report read.
However, Mohammed who reacted to the report Monday branded Zatko’s claim as ridiculous.
The minister insisted there were robust negotiations between the Nigerian government and Twitter executive members at the instance of the latter before the ban was lifted in January.
“This claim is so ludicrous that one could just have ignored it. But the claim has continued to make the rounds online, hence our decision to clarify things, After all, it is said that if a lie is repeated often enough, people will believe it”, the minister stated. (NAN)
