The Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has confirmed that its members have received formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator to suspend access to Twitter.
The industry association said in a press release Saturday morning that it has conducted a robust assessment of the request in accordance with internationally accepted principles.
“Based on national interest provisions in the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, and within the licence terms under which the industry operates; our members have acted in compliance with the directives of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) the industry regulator.
“We will continue to engage all the relevant authorities and stakeholders and will act as may be further directed by the NCC,” ALTON said in the statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo and Executive Secretary, Gbolahan Awonuga.
The body said it remained committed to supporting the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and upholding the rights of citizens.
“As an industry, we endorse the position of the United Nations that the rights held by people offline must also be protected online.
“This includes respecting and protecting the rights of all people to communicate, to share information freely and responsibly, and to enjoy privacy and security regarding their data and their use of digital communications,” ALTON said.
On Friday, the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Ministry of Information and Culture announced its decision to suspend the operations of social media platform Twitter in the country.
The statement, made by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, and signed off by his media aide Segun Adeyemi, was a culmination of events that have happened this past week.
On Thursday, Twitter had deleted tweets and videos of President Muhammadu Buhari making threats of punishment to a sect called IPOB in the South-Eastern part of the country after he blamed them for attacks on government buildings.
He then referenced Nigeria’s civil war events in the 1960s, which seemed to offend many Nigerians, especially of the South Eastern stock.
Buhari had said that young Nigerians in the country’s southeastern part were too young to remember the horrible events that occurred during the war.
“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” he said.
Twitter chose to delete the tweet after violating its abusive behaviour policy and several calls by Nigerians to take it down.
Twitter also suspended the president’s account, leaving it in a “read-only mode” for 12 hours.
