There are indications that US technology giant, Twitter may be targeting accounts critical of ongoing protests against police brutality targeting blacks in the United.
Recall that for the last 3 days the United States has been in a state of unrest and protest which was sparked by the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck with his hands in his pockets.
Floyd’s arrest was captured in a video which has now been seen by millions around the world, sparking global outrage.
The video shows Floyd laying on the ground with a white officer Derek Chauvin’s knee pinning him to the ground as he begged, “I can’t breathe.” until he died.
Many people across the world view the incident as a testament to racism in the United States.
In Nigeria many people took to their social media handle to denounced the brutality in very strong terms.
However this has also led to the suspension of Twitter accounts of some Nigerians according to reports.
Speaking about his experience Hakika Hashim said his Twitter account was suspended yesterday noting that he had no doubt that it was over his tweets and condemnation of the police killing of George Floyd. “I am certain the suspension is over my tweets on American racism and brutal murder of Floyd, my account has been opened since 2011 why now? I am shocked this is a curtailment of freedom of speech by by Twitter and a country that claims to be the bastion of democracy and freedom of expression.
Also speaking in a similar light Tumba Solomon said apart from his account which was suspended he is also aware of those of three of his friends which were also suspended “My account and that of three of my friends were suspended yesterday by Twitter on account of our tweets condemning racial descrimination in America and calling for more protests across America. Our experience may just be a tip of the iceberg. We are enraged by what is happening in America”
It would also be recalled that yesterday the President of the United States Donald Trump signed an Executive Order
Seeking to make tech companies more accountable.
Trump said the new Order was to “defend free speech from dangers.” according to him,
“A small handful of social media monopolies controls a vast portion of all public and private communications in the United States,” he said. “They’ve had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter, virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences.”
The question in the minds of many is, has Twitter resulted to self censorship in the face of this new Executive Irder to please President Trump? Will this be the new reality of account suspension for commenting on issues in America?
