Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari has had his tweet where he threatened to use maximum force on breakup agitators deleted by Twitter. Twitter’s decision to take down the genocidal tweet came after several online protests asking that the microblogging platform dish out the same punishment it handed out to Trump. Recall that Twitter deleted several of Donald Trump’s tweets where the ex-president used words the company claimed were against its policies.
The controversial tweets referred to the 1967-1970 Nigerian Civil War that took the lives of many citizens mostly people from the Eastern part of the country. Quoting the Nigerian leader, Buhari threatened to deal with “those misbehaving today” in “the language they will understand.”
The president’s threat to use force came on the heels of recent spate of attacks on uniform officials and government institutions in the South-East.
Reacting to Twitter’s move, information minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed accused Twitter of being “double standards.”
“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” President Buhari’s controversial tweet read.
Several of Donald Trump’s controversial tweets were deleted during the last few months of his presidency. Things however, got out of hand following the invasion of the Capitol Hill. Twitter then had to permanently suspend Donald Trump’s Twitter account for showing public support for the insurrection. Though, the former president later condemned the invasion, his earlier statement had already enraged millions of people across the world who called for tougher action against him.
The decision to permanently suspend @realDonaldTrump account was taken following two of his tweets, which the microblogging company claimed violated its policy.
An overview of the two tweets that led to the ban include:
On January 8, 2021, President Donald J. Trump Tweeted:
“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
Shortly thereafter, the President Tweeted:
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
“Due to the ongoing tensions in the United States, and an uptick in the global conversation in regards to the people who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks.”
