Nigeria Bans Twitter After Company Deleted Tweet From President Buhari

The Nigerian government announced that it has “indefinitely suspended” Twitter’s operations in the country in a statement on Friday.

According to CNN, a statement on the suspension was posted on the official Twitter account of the Ministry of Information and Culture.

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

The American social media company is being accused of allowing its platform to be used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”

The suspension comes two days after Twitter deleted a tweet by Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari that was reportedly perceived as offensive.

President Buhari warned insurrectionists that they were in for a “rude shock” on Tuesday, then tweeted a message referring to the 1967-70 civil war that killed at least 1 million people.

“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,” his tweet stated.

“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” he continued. His tweet was allegedly taken as a warning of a fierce crackdown on growing violence.

Twitter confirmed that Buhari’s message was removed for violating its “abusive behavior” policy, also leading to a 12-hour suspension of his account.