Nigeria lifts Twitter ban after site agrees to government demands

    
    James Martin/CNET
    Nigeria has agreed to lift its ban on Twitter, the country’s government said Wednesday. People in the West African country lost access to the microblogging platform last June, after the social media site took down a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari.
    The ban ended after Twitter pledged?to open a local office in Nigeria and address concerns over its tax payments, according to CNN. Another condition is “managing prohibited publication in line with Nigerian law” – the official reason for last summer’s suspension was “persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
    Twitter said it?removed Buhari’s tweet because it violated the site’s “abusive behavior” policy, Reuters reported last summer. The tweet referenced the civil war in Nigeria’s Biafra region in the late 1960s and was directed at present-day secessionists who’ve been blamed for attacks on government buildings, the outlet noted, adding that Buhari served in the army during that war and was Nigeria’s military ruler in the 1980s.
    “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” Buhari wrote in the removed tweet, according to Reuters.