The president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, was so outraged when Twitter deleted his post last Wednesday (2 June) that he ordered the country’s mobile networks to block access to the social network and broadcasters to delete their accounts. While Buhari’s comment – in which he appeared to threaten to return Nigeria to the appalling violence of its 1967 civil war – certainly looks like a violation of Twitter’s policies, it’s an unusual political intervention by the company (when Donald Trump threatened people protesting the murder of George Floyd with “shooting”, the post was merely flagged). More common are the requests governments make for the removal of posts that criticise them – and social media companies are often willing to comply.
Companies can restrict certain types of content in different jurisdictions. Their policies state that they reject “improper” requests, and that the content that’s removed violates platform rules or local laws. But what is legal is not necessarily just. In the past few years, governments around the world have introduced a flurry of new laws governing online speech. In countries that restrict freedom of expression, social media platforms are being offered a choice between aiding repression or losing access to lucrative markets.
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