Twitter: The Prospective Economic Repercussions Of Social Media Shutdown In Nigerian?
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True power freedom is not really when people speak, it is when they express the content of their thoughts. While threats can oftentimes be expressed when spoken, it is what actually give away an intended actions. The thought is limitless in it's assertions. That is why when people are being sentenced, given a punishment for a particular offence is most jurisdiction it's always the intention that matters a lot.
While threats of the mouth can be dangerous, people are often arrested or charged because of their initial intent even if they've not expressed it through their actions. The president of Nigeria threatened violence and war in his tweet somedays ago and as a result of this, his tweets were deleted due to violation.
The Irony..
The irony of this issue is that the Nigerian government themselves has been anti-free speech for a long time, but then when twitter deleted the president's speech, the Presidency deemed it to be anti-free speech, forming the perception that twitter as a social media is always giving people the power as an incitation or incentive to stand against the sovereignty of the government.
The presidency of Nigeria once claimed that twitter allowed people to exchange bitcoin, transfer it through wallets without a traceble means and hence it was used to fund a malicious attack against the government. This was a ludicrous twist of the tale of what happened when the Nigerian government massacred her citizens for protesting against police brutality.
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These citizens were killed for protesting against a bad government, an economically inept state that's failed both politically and economically. This is what makes it surprising that the government would call twitter anti-free speech and says it incites her citizens against its rulership, while they themselves have been trying to silence people from expressing their pain against a bad government, isn't this so ironical?
Currently they have given the order to ban twitter from the Nigerian airspace and the way it's going they might ban Facebook, or Instagram and other social medias as well. It's evident they don't want external forces to even understand the anarchial rulership they're practising in disguise of democracy.
Economically...
Bitcoin trading was banned, now twitter is being banned, how doesn't this close doors to external investors in a country that is hostile against foreigners? The repercussions here are numerous, first of all. A lot of Influencers earns their living from twitter. Twitter has no borders like Facebook and allows people reach a massive audience especially by the strength of retweets, these means that these influencers can help promote the businesses of small entepreneurs, small establishment and all.
It's a win-win. People make money by helping others make money and hence commerce is an everyday activity that the government has actually considered before making this decision. Crypto trading had this effect too, and I wonder how traditional banks and media houses will make their money especially if social medias are banned, this would mean the government are shutting down the economy just to protect their heinous rule.
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Social Media Is Toothless In The First Place
This brings me to the fact that most Nigerians only have twitter as a means to fight the government, public protests, ombudsman and so many other means might mean death or threat of jail to citizens. People use twitter to inform the world about what's currently going on the country.
This is toothless, people's intent is to overthrow the government but they're only talking on twitter and a mere physical mobilisation will make the government unless the government and do into blood mode, so people aren't punished for actually making attempts for overthrowing the government, they're being punished for having the intents and this is why I believe talking on twitter has hardly ever made any impact since external forces cannot infiltrate a sovereign nation without her permission.
In Retrospect, I believe only an ACT, maybe from the UN or maybe something in the confederal ACTs Can change what is currently happening in Nigeria. The government are enjoying the fact that they're a sovereign independent nation hence torturing and punishing her citizens is no one's business. I feel that people will find a workaround to use twitter, but the fear is that wouldn't it get to a stage where they might contemplate shutting down the ibttjstt entirely?
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My name is @Josediccus, a young Nigerian student who is a Vlogger, A Psychologist, Poet And Sports Writer/Analyst. I'm using my contents as a process to create shared meaning as well as create expressions through which people on/off hive can relate. I believe content is a process to be enjoyed and relished and I'm up for any collaborations in my field stated above. Cheers
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