A TOTAL of N150.46bn ($366.88m) may have been lost by Nigeria since the Federal Government’s ban on Twitter took effect in the country on June 5.
The figure was computed based on the NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool. According to the tool, it costs Nigeria’s economy N102.77m ($250,600) every hour to ban Twitter.
In the time period of 1,464 hours (61 days) of the ban, Nigeria may have lost N150.46bn.
The NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool estimates the economic impact of an internet disruption, mobile data blackout or app restriction in a nation using indicators from the World Bank, International Telecommunication Union, Eurostat and U.S. Census.
Recall that the Federal Government had on June 4 announced the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria. Telecommunication companies started blocking access to Twitter on June 5, after they received a directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission to block access to Twitter.
The FG’s reason for the suspension was the persistent use of the platform for activities capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
Following the ban, groups including the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, had dragged the Federal Government to the ECOWAS court.
Recall that in a counter-affidavit the government deposed to in response to an originating motion filed by human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, the Federal Government told a Federal High Court in Lagos that it had not stopped Nigerians from using Twitter, adding that many Nigerians still used it every day.
The affidavit said, “The applicant (Effiong) and the class he seeks to represent can still operate those Twitter accounts from anywhere in the world and even from Nigeria.
“Nigerians are still tweeting, even at this moment as the ban on Twitter is not aimed at intimidating Nigerians or an infringement on the rights of Nigerians to express their opinion.”
A report by Statista has stated that Nigeria has about 33 million active social media users, with about 26 per cent on Twitter, as some Nigerians have migrated to the use of Virtual Private Networks since the ban.
According to a June report by ExpressVPN, an increase of over 200 per cent in web traffic from Nigeria has been recorded since the Federal Government banned Twitter.
A VPN works by changing the location of devices they run on, thereby having Twitter operation of users appear different.
