Following an announcement by Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, that the country has banned the operation of Twitter, Nigerians are downloading various virtual private network (VPN) applications to bypass the telecommunications operators.
The announcement of the Twitter ban was in connection with the recent deletion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Tweet found to have breached Twitter’s rule. Ironically, the ban was also announced via the government’s Twitter handle which enjoys large followership of thousands of Nigerians. The ban also means that the country’s President would also jettison its over four million Twitter followership.
Announcing the ban, the statement from the government read: “The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence.
“The Minister said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.”
The Nigerian Twitter community, however, appeared determined to continue using Twitter irrespective of the government’s stance. They have begun educating themselves on the use of VPN to bypass the networks. Demonstrating the high level of discussions about the various apps, VPN is one of the trending topics in the Nigerian Twitter space as of the time of filing this report.
How does VPN work?
A VPN connection establishes a secure connection between you and the internet. Via the VPN, all your data traffic is routed through an encrypted virtual tunnel. This disguises your IP address when you use the internet, making its location invisible to everyone. A VPN connection is also secure against external attacks.
A VPN creates a secure connection between you and the internet. When you connect to the internet through a VPN, all your data traffic is sent through an encrypted virtual tunnel.
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