Nigerian president to lift Twitter ban if certain conditions are met

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Friday the country will lift its ban on Twitter if certain conditions are met by the company. 

The president said during an address to the country on its Independence Day that Twitter will have to register and pay taxes in Nigeria and meet conditions on areas such as  “national security” and local content guidelines, The Associated Press reported. 

“The issues are being addressed and I have directed that the suspension be lifted but only if the conditions are met to allow our citizens continue the use of the platform for business and positive engagements,” he said. 

Although many of the young people in the country with 200 million people have been able to bypass the ban on Twitter through a virtual private network, big corporations have abided by the ban. 

Twitter has been shut down since June after the company took down a tweet from Buhari for comparing gunmen attacking national electoral commission offices to the Nigeria Civil War.

The country claims they did not ban Twitter in response to Buhari’s tweet getting taken down. 

Former President Trump, who has been banned from Twitter, applauded Nigeria’s move to shut down the site in its country and said other countries should do the same thing.