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The Economic Community of West African States’ court has termed the seven-month suspension of Twitter by Nigerian authorities last year illegal. Citizens and human rights organisations in Nigeria pitted against the state and filed a case in July 2021, a month after the ban on Twitter.
The Economic Community of West African States’ court termed the seven-month suspension of Twitter by Nigerian authorities illegal last year. Citizens and human rights organisations in Nigeria pitted against the state and filed a case in July 2021, a month after the ban on Twitter.
Twitter was reauthorized in January 2022 after negotiations between the Nigerian government and the social network. According to the Court of Justice of ECOWAS, this suspension was “illegal and incompatible” with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
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The court said that with this suspension, Nigeria violated the rights of citizens and NGOs – at the origin of the complaint – to “enjoy their freedom of expression and access to information and the media. Furthermore, it orders the Nigerian state to ensure that this illegal ban on Twitter is not repeated in the future. Abuja had announced in June 2021 the suspension of Twitter for an “indefinite period”. It has accused the social network of having a suspicious mission against the Nigerian government, and hosting messages of the leader of a separatist group who was inciting violence in southeast Nigeria.
