Access to Twitter in Nigeria will be restored later today.
The west African country imposed a ban on Twitter last year and set several conditions to be met by the social network before they restored services in the country.
Twitter met those conditions and the Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement has announced that they will lift the ban midnight today(WAT).
“The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) directs me to inform the public that President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has approved the lifting of the suspension of Twitter operation in Nigeria effective from 12 am tonight, 13th January 2022,” reads a statement by Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the director-general of Nigeria’s tech agency, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi is the chairman of the Technical Committee to resolve this issue.
“The approval was given following a memo written to the President by the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim. In the Memo, the minister updated and requested the President’s approval for the lifting based on the Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement’s recommendation,” he adds.
Twitter has also agreed to set up a legal entity in the country by the first quarter of 2022. The social network will also appoint a designated country representative who the Federal government can charge in case of any infractions.
Twitter will also enrol Nigeria in its Partner Support and Law Enforcement Portals to comply with applicable tax obligations on its operations under the country’s law.
The portals will serve as a connection between the country and Twitter and help manage prohibited content that violates the company’s community rules.
“Twitter has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history on which such legislation has been built and work with the FGN and the broader industry to develop Code of Conduct in line with global best practices, applicable in almost all developed countries,” the statement continues.
Nigerians have been using VPNs to access the social network and once this ban is lifted, they will get to use the app without using workarounds.
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