Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has said that a national ban on Twitter can be lifted, but only if the tech giant meets certain conditions.
But the ban was still in place on Friday morning, even as President Buhari said Nigerians could continue to use the platform for “business and positive engagements”.
In a speech marking Nigerian independence day, the president said that a presidential committee had engaged with Twitter on a number of issues from national security, to fair taxation and dispute resolution.
Twitter has not responded to the president’s remarks.
The Nigerian government suspended Twitter’s operations in June, after the social media platform had deleted a controversial tweet by President Buhari that violated its rules.
Nigeria’s suspension of Twitter led to strong criticism from human rights organisations and press freedom advocates. Rights groups have also rejected the conditional lifting of the ban, saying Nigerians should not be denied their right to freedom of expression.
Despite the ban, no arrests or fines have been imposed on the journalists or media houses who’ve continued using the platform via virtual private networks (VPN).
