Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on Twitter's suspension of the Nigerian president's account, stating, "An information beast cannot dictate to countries how to live." She added, "The information beast, even if it is quite interesting, cannot dictate a state's registration, how to live, how to interpret historical events, which movies to watch, or which music to listen to; otherwise, instead of freedom of expression, a dictator of privatized freedom of expression appears." She continued, "The social network believes that the President of Nigeria does not know the history of his country, as does the social network... It has counted and miscalculated; there is currently no such social network in Nigeria for the authorities to think otherwise. This is exactly what we are discussing in a session dedicated to digital sovereignty and a unified information space."
Nigerian telecommunications companies announced on Saturday that they had suspended access to the "Twitter" platform in the country by government order. It is noteworthy that "Twitter" removed a tweet from Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari last Wednesday, in which he threatened to punish separatists whom he blamed for attacks on government buildings. "Twitter" explained that the tweet referred to the civil war that took place between 1967 and 1970 due to the secession of the Biafra region in southeastern Nigeria, a conflict that resulted in a million deaths. In response to the situation, Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed stated, "The president is free to express his opinion if it is related to the situation."
