Twitter to enrol Nigeria in Partner Support Portal. Here’s what it means and how it affects you
After more than 200 days of banning the operations of Twitter in Nigeria, the government announced on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, that it was lifting the ban at 12 am on Thursday, January 13, 2022.
Kashifu Abdullahi, the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), who announced the lifting of the ban, listed six resolutions he claimed the government agreed with Twitter before the ban was lifted.
Twitter will pay tax to Nigeria, register with the Corporate Affairs Commission, establish a legal entity in Nigeria and appoint a designated country representative.
But there’s much more. The fourth resolution says:
“Twitter has agreed to enrol Nigeria in its Partner Support and Law Enforcement Portals.”
What does this even mean?
The Partner Support Portal (PSP) is an invite-only tool that allows partner organisations to rapidly report suspected violations of Twitter Rules, Twitter said in its Retrospective Review of the 2019 European Elections.
PSP facilitates easier reporting from outside partners of Twitter such as civil society organisations, universities, research organisations and academics.
This means that once the Nigerian government is enrolled on the portal, it now has direct access to report tweets from Nigerians, and Twitter will swiftly attend to them and take appropriate action.
The action may include deleting the tweet as it did to President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘Biafra tweet’ that led to Twitter suspension or suspending the account where the tweet originated from. Unlike Buhari’s case, where many Nigerians reported the President’s tweet before it was taken down after a few fours, with PSP, the government will directly report the tweet, and Twitter will take rapid action.
This is also one of the measures put in place by Twitter to check the spread of fake news and prevent posts that promote violence.
Why you may need to be worried
With the Nigerian government’s history of several attempts to gag free speech and disregard for the rule of law, enrolling the government on PSP as campaigns towards 2023 general elections are beginning to gather momentum may be tricky.
Many believe the government may use this against opposing voices and clamp down on critics on Twitter which remains the biggest galvanisation tool for social change and political participation for many young Nigerians.
Exactly 10 years ago, in January 2012, Twitter helped young Nigerians to mobilise support and drive the #OccupyNaija campaign against the removal of fuel subsidy by the government of Goodluck Jonathan. Two years later, young Nigerians also used Twitter to draw global attention to the kidnap of more than 200 school girls at Chibok in Borno State through the #BringBackOurGirls campaign that sparked global outrage. The government didn’t shut down Twitter.
In 2014/2015, Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), used Twitter to drive their presidential campaign and win the young population that played a significant role in their coming to power, but the government became aversed to the platform as young Nigerians continue to use it to demand accountability from the government and after the 2020 #EndSARS protests.
Buhari, a former military general, who first came to power through a military coup in 1983 and was removed through another coup in 1985, told Arise TV in October 2021 that young Nigerians wanted to remove him from office with the protest.
Will the government accept criticisms?
We asked Twitter if there are measures in place to differentiate between outright criticism that the government finds offensive and tweets that violate Twitter rules. Its Senior Policy Communications Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Sarah Harte, is yet to respond.
“We are pleased that Twitter has been restored for everyone in Nigeria. Our mission in Nigeria and around the world is to serve the public conversation. We are deeply committed to Nigeria, where Twitter is used by people for commerce, cultural engagement, and civic participation,” Twitter tweeted in the early hours of Thursday morning after the ban was lifted
What civil society organisations can do
In other parts of the world, Twitter also onboards civil society organisations to PSP.
“Prior to (EU) Election Day, we onboarded to the Partner Support Portal more than 80 partners across the EU. This included election support organisations, EU based research organisations, universities and academics who study the spread of misinformation in the media, and key EU and national political parties and institutions,” Twitter said in its Retrospective Review of 2019 European elections.
Research organisations and election support organisations in Nigeria can also enroll on PSP to put the government, public officials and political influencers under constant check when they make false claims as the 2023 election approaches.
For millions of young Nigerians, Twitter is not just a social platform; it has become a galvanisation tool for social change and a livelihood source in a country where more than 23.2 million people are unemployed as of the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
While the ban lasted, the livelihoods of Nigerian influencers, small and medium business owners were badly affected.
Gbenga Sogbaike, the former CEO of Plaqad, a PR and marketing technology company, told Neusroom in June 2021 that many Nigerians earn their living off Twitter, describing it as “a great marketing tool for businesses”.
