Nigeria is said to have lost N247.61 billion to Twitter ban in 100 days.
The Federal Government had on June 4 suspended Twitter after the social media platform deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Consequently, telcos on June 5 blocked access to Twitter after receiving a directive by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
On this, the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria had said, “We, The Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria wish to confirm that our members have received formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission, the industry regulator, to suspend access to Twitter.
“ALTON has conducted a robust assessment of the directive in accordance with internationally accepted principles.”
According to the NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool, the blockade costs Nigeria’s economy N103.17 million ($250,600) every hour.
It has been 2,400 hours since the FG banned Twitter.
On August 19, the Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, stated that from the 10 demands put forward to lift Twitter suspension, the social networking platform had acceded to seven.
Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a social enterprise, in conjunction with Enough is Enough Nigeria (EiE); Media Rights Agenda (MRA), and Socio-Economic Rights And Accountability Project (SERAP), will today organise a press conference in Lagos on the Twitter ban. They have jointly put the loss to the economy at about $360 million.
There are about five lawsuits in Nigeria and the ECOWAS courts on the Twitter ban. Recall that EiE, PIN, and MRA have filed a lawsuit against MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9Mobile for the court to declare the blockage of Twitter access as unlawful, unconstitutional, and against the rights to freedom of expression.
