{"id":8193,"date":"2021-06-14T15:18:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T14:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=8193"},"modified":"2021-06-14T15:18:20","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T14:18:20","slug":"twitter-did-not-ban-buhari-as-claimed-in-trumps-viral-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/twitter-did-not-ban-buhari-as-claimed-in-trumps-viral-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter did not ban Buhari as claimed in Trump\u2019s viral statement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: The former President of the United States, Donald Trump, in a congratulatory message to Nigeria over the recent Twitter ban, claimed Twitter banned President Muhammadu Buhari. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Twitter didn\u2019t ban President Muhammadu Buhari. Twitter only removed a post made by the President.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Story <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, June 4, 2021, the Nigerian government suspended the operations indefinitely in the country the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria\u2019s corporate existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suspension came days after Twitter deleted a post by President Muhammadu Buhari where he had condemned the attacks on police stations, prisons and offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the South-East, warning that those supporting insurrection and violence in the country would be \u201ctreated in the language they understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tweet reads: \u201cMany of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This suspension has brought about a lot of reaction from Nigerians and also the international community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, June 8, 2021, the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, in a statement, congratulated Nigeria for banning the operations of Twitter in the country. Trump also encouraged more countries to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, in his statement<\/a>, claimed Twitter banned President Muhammadu Buhari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wrote: \u201cCongratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President. More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech \u2013 all voices should be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the meantime, competitors will emerge and take hold. Who are they to dictate good and evil if they themselves are evil?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be recalled that in January 2021, Twitter and Facebook suspended the accounts of Donald Trump, following the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. The platforms claim he mobilised his followers to invade Capitol Hill over the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election after he lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A screenshot of Donald Trump\u2019s statement\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Verification\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dubawa started by checking the official Twitter handle of President Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) to see if his account has been banned or deactivated but found nothing of such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, he is still recognised as Nigeria\u2019s President as stated on his bio in the verified handle. As of Wednesday, June 9, the President\u2019s account is active with 4.1 million followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further checks showed that his last tweet was on June 1 and all is still intact except for his controversial post which was removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twitter’s policy on ban<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Twitter has some rules and policies to ensure all people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Twitter user can be banned or permanently suspended if found guilty of the risk of further incitement of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, the former president, Donald Trump, was banned on Twitter, following his tweet which led to the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twitter, in a press release, explaining why Trump was banned, said: \u201cAfter close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them \u2014 specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter \u2014 we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Twitter, when a user is removed from the platform, such user is permanently removed no matter the position such user holds in the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twitter\u2019s chief financial officer, Ned Segal, in an interview on CNBC after Trump was banned, reiterated that Twitter has policies in place to \u201cmake sure that people are not inciting violence\u201d and, if someone\u2019s content does that, they will be removed from the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you are removed from the platform, you are removed from the platform, whether you are a commentator, you\u2019re a CFO, or you are a former or current public official, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In President Buhari\u2019s case, he violated Twitter\u2019s \u201cabusive behavior\u201d policy which led to the removal of the post and suspension of his account for 12 hours. The consequence of violating this rule is linked to a number of factors including, but not limited to, the severity of the violation and an individual\u2019s previous record of rule violations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In twitter\u2019s judgement, Buhari has not done what could warrant a ban, hence, his account was not removed from the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A screenshot of President Buhari\u2019s Twitter account<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The claim by the former president of the United States is false. Twitter didn\u2019t ban President Muhammadu Buhari. Twitter only removed a post made by the President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2021 Kwame KariKari Fellowship partnership with The Nigerian Tribune<\/a> to facilitate the ethos of \u201ctruth\u201d in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: The former President of the United States, Donald Trump, in a congratulatory message to Nigeria over the recent Twitter ban, claimed Twitter banned President Muhammadu Buhari. Twitter didn\u2019t ban President Muhammadu Buhari. Twitter only removed a post made by the President. Full Story On Friday, June 4, 2021, the Nigerian government suspended the operations indefinitely in the country the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria\u2019s corporate existence. The suspension came days after Twitter deleted a post by President Muhammadu Buhari where he had condemned the attacks on police stations, prisons and offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the South-East, warning that those supporting insurrection and violence in the country would be \u201ctreated in the language they understand.\u201d The tweet reads: \u201cMany of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.\u201d This suspension has brought about a lot of reaction from Nigerians and also the international community. On Tuesday, June 8, 2021, the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, in a statement, congratulated Nigeria for banning the operations of Twitter in the country. Trump also encouraged more countries to do the same. Trump, in his statement, claimed Twitter banned President Muhammadu Buhari. He wrote: \u201cCongratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President. More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech \u2013 all voices should be heard. \u201cIn 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.\u201d It can be recalled that in January 2021, Twitter and Facebook suspended the accounts of Donald Trump, following the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. The platforms claim he mobilised his followers to invade Capitol Hill over the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election after he lost. Verification\u00a0 Dubawa started by checking the official Twitter handle of President Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) to see if his account has been banned or deactivated but found nothing of such. Also, he is still recognised as Nigeria\u2019s President as stated on his bio in the verified handle. As of Wednesday, June 9, the President\u2019s account is active with 4.1 million followers. Further checks showed that his last tweet was on June 1 and all is still intact except for his controversial post which was removed. Twitter’s policy on ban Twitter has some rules and policies to ensure all people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely.  A Twitter user can be banned or permanently suspended if found guilty of the risk of further incitement of violence. For instance, the former president, Donald Trump, was banned on Twitter, following his tweet which led to the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. Twitter, in a press release, explaining why Trump was banned, said: \u201cAfter close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them \u2014 specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter \u2014 we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.\u201d According to Twitter, when a user is removed from the platform, such user is permanently removed no matter the position such user holds in the public. Twitter\u2019s chief financial officer, Ned Segal, in an interview on CNBC after Trump was banned, reiterated that Twitter has policies in place to \u201cmake sure that people are not inciting violence\u201d and, if someone\u2019s content does that, they will be removed from the platform. \u201cWhen you are removed from the platform, you are removed from the platform, whether you are a commentator, you\u2019re a CFO, or you are a former or current public official, he said. In President Buhari\u2019s case, he violated Twitter\u2019s \u201cabusive behavior\u201d policy which led to the removal of the post and suspension of his account for 12 hours. The consequence of violating this rule is linked to a number of factors including, but not limited to, the severity of the violation and an individual\u2019s previous record of rule violations.  In twitter\u2019s judgement, Buhari has not done what could warrant a ban, hence, his account was not removed from the platform. Conclusion The claim by the former president of the United States is false. Twitter didn\u2019t ban President Muhammadu Buhari. Twitter only removed a post made by the President. The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2021 Kwame KariKari Fellowship partnership with The Nigerian Tribune to facilitate the ethos of \u201ctruth\u201d in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571,16],"tags":[812,201,1919],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[1894],"class_list":["post-8193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-politics","tag-donald-trump","tag-muhammadu-buhari","tag-twitter-ban"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-289","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":1894,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"faith-adeoye","display_name":"Faith Adeoye","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e616648a9d7e25f4831b8eed000d28784e26cb3f56ac71172f2b3d79d69862d?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/buhari-trump.jpg?fit=1200%2C700&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8193"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=8193"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=8193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}