The Supreme Court of Twitter
Twitter, the social media platform, deleted tweets made by the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.In the tweet made my him he had warned the rebels in southern part of Nigeria about the potential repeat of the 1967 Biafran Civil war.
A similar example was seen when the ex-US president Donald Trumps was banned by twitter. The social media platform has been condemned by various international agencies like Amnesty International as well as the British and Canadian missions and the Swedish Embassy in Nigeria for taking law in their hands. I think the social media like twitter should have no right to delete accounts of heads of states and demean their position in the government.
Interference in the local politics of a region brings back in mind the history of East India Company. Though it possessed the face of a peaceful merchant but in no time it developed into the master of Bengal and consequently entire India. The companies should remain within their jurisdiction and should understand that they are not above the rule of law.
Twitter has recently acted in a positive manner too by suspending the account of the Punjabi Singer Jazzy B on the direction of the Indian government. Jazzy B had tweeted pro Khalistani content on his twitter which violated India’s Information Technology Act. Twitter was also one of the first social media company that had announced that is was trying to comply with the new Information Technology rules. I am very happy with the fact that twitter is hiring more workforce in order to implement these rules. These companies should be below the government and not above them.
