Trump hails Twitter ban in Nigeria, says 'more countries' should ban Facebook & Twitter

While the United States and the European Union voiced concerns over Nigeria’s decision to indefinitely ban Twitter, former US President Donald Trump congratulated the West African country for the move. In a statement on June 8, Trump lauded the Nigerian government for banning Twitter after the microblogging platform deleted a tweet by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s account that violated its rules and threatened genocide. According to former US President, more nations should follow Nigeria’s suit and ban Twitter and Facebook, both platforms have suspended Trump’s account. Following the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill, Twitter “permanently suspended” Trump’s account while Facebook said that it would keep his account deactivated for two more years before re-evaluation.

Trump said, “Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President. More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech—all voices should be heard. In the meantime, competitors will emerge and take hold.”

Further, Trump also said “perhaps I should’ve” banned the social media giant during his four-year tenure. Lamenting his leniency towards social media during his presidency, Trump issued an official statement through his website said that he should have taken action against Facebook but its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg “kept calling” the former US President. Trump also said that Zuckerberg kept telling the ex-US President “how great” he was before hinting at a possible ban in 2014 when he is planning to contest for the presidency again.

While criticising social media giants including Facebook and Twitter, Trump said on Tuesday, “Who are they to dictate good and evil if they themselves are evil? Perhaps I should have done it while I was President. But Zuckerberg kept calling me and coming to the White House for dinner telling me how great I was. 2024?”

The former US President who has also been ‘permanently suspended’ from Twitter “after close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter” and citing the risk of further violence after January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. Nigeria went on to ban the platform after the Nigerian President’s post saying, “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” was deleted. However, the Nigerian presidency has reportedly denied on Saturday that the Twitter suspension was a reciprocation of the deletion of the tweet.

"There has been a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences," a presidency spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement before adding that the removal of Buhari’s tweet was “disappointing” and that “major tech companies must be alive to their responsibilities."

Twitter ‘deeply concerned’ with Nigeria ban

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