U.S. Backs Twitter in Nigeria Feud

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A post shared by Jessica Walters (@quickconservative)

Backstory

On June 1, 2021, in a now-deleted tweet, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari wrote:

Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.

Following user complaints, Twitter deleted the tweet the next day (June 2, 2021).

On June 4, 2021, the Nigerian Ministry of Information and Culture announced:

The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.

U.S. Response

In a press release, the United States Department of State said it:

...condemns the ongoing suspension of Twitter by the Nigerian government [...] Unduly restricting the ability of Nigerians to report, gather, and disseminate opinions and information has no place in a democracy. Freedom of expression and access to information both online and offline are foundational to prosperous and secure democratic societies." - June 10, 2021

The Trump Connection

The U.S. response is not without irony, as Twitter permanently banned the United States President from its platform on January 8, 2021.

Of note: President Buhari's tweet (which started the Twitter/Nigeria feud) arguably had much greater potential to "incite violence" than the tweets that Twitter cited in suspending President Trump; however, Buhari's tweet was simply deleted. Trump was permanently banned.

On January 8, 2021, President Trump tweeted:

The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!

Shortly thereafter, the President tweeted:

To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.

Twitter cited these two tweets and said:

Due to the ongoing tensions in the United States, and an uptick in the global conversation in regards to the people who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks. After assessing the language in these Tweets against our Glorification of Violence policy, we have determined that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service.