TWITTER CEO JACK DORSEY TWEETS NIGERIAN FLAG

Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, on Saturday, at exactly 12am tweeted the green white-green Nigerian flag as the West African country marked its 2021 Democracy Day - an apparent reference to the celebration of Democracy Day in the country.

Dorsey's tweet, which was posted hours to the ongoing nationwide protests in Nigeria, has since attracted thousands of retweets.

Twitter walked itself into the Nigerian government’s black book earlier this month after deleting a tweet posted by President Muhammadu Buhari which evoked the memories of the Nigerian Civil War.

The platform said the tweet violated its “abusive behaviour" rules. But the Nigerian authorities said Twitter was suspended in the country because it was often used for activities that threaten the "corporate existence" of the country.

The Buhari regime has since come under fire for what many termed as a restriction of the right of expression. The international community including the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, amongst others have since knocked the Buhari regime for the action but the Federal Government has been unyielding in its stance insisting that the sovereignty of the West African nation must be respected by the San Francisco tech giant.

Millions of content creators in Nigeria, who earn their living from the microblogging site, have been affected as they are forbidden from using Twitter. Some of them have since embarked on a journey of diversification while exploring other social media platforms.

Nigeria, with over 200 million people, had about 33 million active social media users as of January 2021. WhatsApp is the most popular platform used in the country, with over 90 million users according to Statista. Also according to Statista, about 61.4 per cent of Nigerian social media users use Twitter, 86.2 per cent use Facebook, 81.6 per cent use YouTube, 73.1 per cent use Instagram, and 67.2 per cent use Facebook Messenger.