The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that Twitter and its founder, Jack Dorsey, are liable for the losses of lives and properties across the country during the EndSARS protests.
He made this known during and interview, stating that “Jack Dorsey raised funds through Bitcoins to sponsor the EndSARS protests while his platform, Twitter, was used to fuel the crisis.”
Lai Mohammed said according to investigations carried out by an online media outfit, Dorsey was noted to have retweeted some posts supporting the EndSARS protests and he even launched an emoji to make the protest visible on the microblogging site.
He said “If you ask people to donate money via bitcoins for EndSars protesters then you are vicariously liable for whatever is the outcome of the protest.”
He continued by saying that “We have not forgotten that EndSARS led to loss of several lives, including 37 policemen, six soldiers, 57 civilians while property worth billions of naira were destroyed.”
“164 police vehicles and 134 police stations were razed to the ground, 265 private corporate organisation were looted while 243 public property were looted.
“81 warehouses were looted while over 200 brand new buses bought by Lagos state government were burnt to ashes.”
Lai Mohammed further said the government took the action to suspend the operations of the platform in Nigeria, not because they deleted a tweet by the President, but because the platform was being used to promote the views of those who wanted to destabilise the country.
He said “Twitter has become a platform of choice for a particular separatist promoter and every attempt to persuade Twitter to deny its platform to this separatist leader was not taken serious.”
He said the Federal Government owes nobody an apology for the suspension of the platform’s operations in the country
