NATIONAL: Why we blocked Nnamdi Kanu’s account — Facebook

FACEBOOK, a social media platform, has cleared the air on why it deleted the social account of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. 

IPOB in a statement by its publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, on Wednesday berated  Facebook for blocking Kanu’s account following his live broadcast on Tuesday night. 

Powerful accused Facebook managers in Lagos and Abuja of colluding with corrupt Nigerian government officials to suppress “the free flow of Information” through their platform. Powerful described the attitude of Facebook as oppressive and prevention of information flow, which he said was similar to how the British government prevented information from Biafra from going out during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 — 1970. 

Powerful, who expressed  IPOB’s displeasure at Facebook’s move, described it as “unconscionable and reprehensible attitude” which according to him amounts to ” partnering with perpetrators of human rights abuses and other criminal activities masterminded by the Nigeria state against innocent citizens.”

But Facebook in a subsequent statement by its spokesman in Lagos, Dapo Akintoye, said the IPOB leader’s social account was deleted for repeatedly posting contents that break its organisation community standards.

 He described Kanu’s content as hate speech and harmful to society. 

The statement reads: “We believe in giving people a voice, but we also want everyone using Facebook to feel safe. It’s why we have Community Standards, which set out what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook, and we remove anything that violates them. 

“In line with our rules, we removed Nnamdi Kanu’s page for repeatedly posting content that breaks those Community Standards, including content that violated our rules on coordinating harm and hate speech”.