Trump Has Some Thoughts on Nigeria's Twitter Ban

Former president says more countries should do the same: 'Perhaps I should have done it'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 9, 2021 11:14 AM CDT
Trump Praises Nigeria for Blocking Twitter
Former President Trump applauds the crowd after he spoke at the North Carolina Republican Convention in Greenville, NC, on Saturday.   (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

Donald Trump is praising Nigeria for banning Twitter after it blocked a tweet from the country's president—which is apparently how the former president wishes things went down when social networks cracked down on him. China, North Korea, and Iran already ban social networks. But "more COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech—all voices should be heard," Trump said in a Tuesday statement, per the Guardian. "Perhaps I should have done it while I was President. But [Facebook CEO Mark] Zuckerberg kept calling me and coming to the White House for dinner telling me how great I was." Twitter permanently banned Trump, and Facebook suspended him for at least two years, claiming he'd encouraged violence. But "who are they to dictate good and evil if they themselves are evil?" Trump said.

Trump said other countries should follow the lead of Nigeria, which "banned Twitter because they banned their President." Nigeria's mobile phone operators were ordered to block access to Twitter after it removed a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari, which included a veiled threat aimed at backers of a secessionist movement in the country's southeast Biafra region, per the BBC and Guardian. But Nigerian authorities claimed the "temporary" suspension wasn't just in response to the deleted tweet. Information Minister Lai Mohammed said the leader of separatist group IPOB was using Twitter to direct attacks against the government "without consequences." Human rights groups are challenging the ban, with Twitter noting "access to the free and #OpenInternet is an essential human right." (Trump previously referred to African nations like Nigeria as "shithole countries.")

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