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The Nigerian Government
has revealed that it would amend its relevant statutes and code to extend the
operational conditions given to social media platform Twitter, to other
social media platforms.
The West African country Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed made
this known in Cairo at a meeting with the Egyptian Minister of Communication
and Information Technology, Dr. Amir Talaat.
The meeting is
coming on the heels of a bilateral discussion with the Africa Export-Import Bank
(Afreximbank) on how Nigeria can access funding to support its growing
creative industry.
Mr. Mohammed together with some private sector stakeholders involved in
Digital Switch Over (DSO), was part of a Federal government delegation to Afreximbank,
to fashion out ways to assist them on how they can source fund to complete
the wholly private sector financially driven project.
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The Minister in his interaction with the Egyptian Minister disclosed that
Nigeria was amending its National Broadcasting Act and Broadcasting Code to
ensure that all online platforms operating in the country must comply with
stipulated conditions.
According to Mohammed, the decision was premised on the recent development on
suspension of Twitter operations in the country and the agreement reached
before the suspension was lifted.
In his words:
“The beauty of the engagement with Twitter is immense.
“Whatever applies to Twitter will apply to all other social media platforms,
be it WhatsApp, Facebook or any other.
“That is why we will be having a retreat to amend the NBC Act and the NBC
Code to incorporate these new gains we made with the engagement with
Twitter,’’ he said.
The Minister who
noted that Twitter has agreed to open a Nigerian Office in the first quarter
of 2022 among other conditions it set before it, said it would be applicable
to other social media sites.
Mohammed revealed
that Twitter has agreed to appoint a designated country representative within
one month of lifting its suspension while its global policy team would also
be available to engage directly with the government
He further added that the company agreed to meet all regulatory demands,
including the Companies and Allied Matters Act, Nigeria Communication Commission
laws and rules, and National Broadcasting Commission Code.
“Twitter has agreed to comply to all payable taxes as they are operating
under the Nigerian laws and this they agreed to do within one week of
restoring their operations”, he said.
“Twitter agreed to immediately work with the Federal Government in the area
of code of conduct which is in line with global best practices
“Twitter agreed to immediately enroll Nigerians in its Law Enforcement
portals and Partners Support Portal.
“The law enforcement portal will provide dedicated channels for the Nigerian
laws enforcement agencies to escalate reports on contents that violate the
code of conduct or the national laws.
“Similarly, the partner support portal provides a direct channel for
government to engage twitter staff to manage prohibited contents,’’ he said.
The minister explained to his counterpart that the Twitter operation was not
suspended in Nigerian because they wrote something about the president as being
carried about in certain quarters.
He said the operation was suspended because Twitter had become the platform
of choice for those who wanted to destabilize Nigeria create disunity and
heat up the polity.
“We met with a barrage of knocks, we were accused of running an authoritarian
government, trying to infringe on freedom of the press, violating the
constitution but we were sure in our mind of what we were doing.
“We were glad that after seven months of serious engagement with Twitter, we
can say that what we achieved is what the suspension of the operations of
Twitter was all about,” he said.
The Egyptian minister on his part said his country had similar challenges in
the area of dissemination of policies and programs of government.
According to Talaat, he was a recent
victim of a fake news report which was very devastating to him but noted that a department was established in the office
of the Prime Minister where they monitor on an hourly basis what kind of fake
news was being cooked up, with a view to combating the menace.
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