The Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), in a report, revealed that the Federal Government and China’s Cyberspace Administration office discussed plans of building a Nigerian internet firewall, just after the ban of Twitter in Nigeria.
This was disclosed in a report by the FIJ on Sunday. They added that Nigerian reps in the meeting included Ibrahim Gambari, the Chief of Staff to the President, and Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture.
What they said
“The internet firewall will also give the Nigerian Government power to block VPN, which many Nigerians are using to access Twitter. The CAC is the central internet regulator, censor, oversight and control agency for China and answers to the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, headed by Xi Jinping, China’s President.
Since its existence, the CAC, which also gives approval to data by Chinese companies outside of China, regulates usernames on the Chinese Internet, licences news information services, and bans comments that “harm national security” or “harm the nations honour interest.”
They added that the conversation about a Nigerian firewall started during the EndSARS protests, as the FG needed a legal framework through which it could carry out its actions.
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Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, ordered the immediate prosecution of Nigerians still making use of the microblogging platform, Twitter, despite the ban of its operations in Nigeria by the Federal Government.
Nairametrics