Former U.S. President Donald Trump has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari’s ban on Twitter, saying he should have done same.
According to him, the ban was a victory for the people of Nigeria and a needed check on the excesses of social media giants.
“Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President,” Mr Trump said in a statement issued Tuesday night.
“More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech — all voices should be heard. In the meantime, competitors will emerge and take hold. Who are they to dictate good and evil if they themselves are evil? Perhaps I should have done it while I was President. But Zuckerberg kept calling me and coming to the White House for dinner telling me how great I was. 2024?” he added.
Trump stressed that he wished he had taken a similar measure when he was banned from the micro-blogging platform in January.
He therefore called on other world leaders to take stringent aims at Facebook, Twitter and other big tech players and warned that their reign would soon be over as other competitors would emerge.
Buhari, had last week, banned Twitter after the social media firm took down his tweets that apparently threatened genocide against Igbo people of Nigeria’s South-East.
The action has faced worldwide criticism, and Twitter said it was working to bypass the restriction and restore access to Nigerians.
Meanwhile, Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter and given a two years suspension from Facebook after instigating the violent invasion of the U.S. Capitol. Twitter cited concern over the “risk of further incitement of violence.”
