After a seven-month suspension of the social networking site on local and Internet services in the country, Nigeria’s federal government has lifted her Twitter ban. First introduced last summer, on the 8th of June, the recently-concluded ban was enforced in response to the social media company’s decision to delete a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari which appeared to threaten violence against separatist protesters in the country’s Eastern region.

PRESS RELEASE

FG Suspends @Twitter Operations in Nigeria pic.twitter.com/7z5BQ0Mi3U

— Fed Min of Info & Cu (@FMICNigeria) June 4, 2021

In a statement shared yesterday, hours before the ban was lifted, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency Engagement, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, shared that the decision to lift the suspension came after “Twitter agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history.”

The amicable decision reached between the federal government and the social networking platform also includes the “appointment of a designated country representative to interface with Nigerian authorities,” the establishment of “a legal entity in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2022,” and a promise by Twitter “to comply with applicable tax obligations.”

For months, the country’s federal government and its current Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed maintained that the ban would not be rescinded until the social networking platform complied with its number of conditions which included but were not limited to the establishment of a Twitter Nigeria office. With the ban now lifted, Twitter is yet to say publicly whether it has agreed to any of these terms – but in a tweet, the social media company welcomed the lifting of the suspension and promised that they remained “deeply committed to Nigeria.”

We are pleased that Twitter has been restored for everyone in Nigeria. Our mission in Nigeria & around the world, is to serve the public conversation.
We are deeply committed to Nigeria, where Twitter is used by people for commerce, cultural engagement, and civic participation.

— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) January 13, 2022

Featured image credits/IT News Africa