Nigeria loses N2 billion after 24hrs of Twitter ban

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Reports have revealed that an estimated N2 billion naira has been lost by Nigeria to the ban on Twitter, NetBlocks, an international Internet monitor, reports.

NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool (COST) is a data-driven online service that enables anyone to quickly and easily produce rough estimates of the economic cost of Internet disruptions.

The digital rights advocacy platform estimates the economic impact of an internet disruption, mobile data blackout or app restriction using indicators from the World Bank, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Eurostat amongst others.

It estimated that N2.1 billion was lost when Nigeria shut down Twitter for 24 hours while stating that it uses the Brookings Institution’s method, which relies on development indicators and Naira/dollar exchange rate of November 2019.

However, it did not specify whether this estimated loss is from advertisement revenue, Twitter marketing and sales of products, traffic generated by Twitter or a drop in telecommunications operators’ revenue.

Nigeria’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, on Friday, announced the ban and a federal government directive ordering the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to “immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.”

As a result of the restrictions implemented by telecommunications operators, Nigerians have been denied access to the microblogging platform and can only access by bypassing domain restrictions through alternative mediums.

Recall that the suspension came on the heels of Twitter’s deletion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s controversial tweet about the civil war after negative reactions from Nigerians trailed the tweet.

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