Amnesty International (AI) has condemned the Department of State Services (DSS) for pressuring social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to delete a post by activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, that was critical of President Bola Tinubu.
Sowore, who contested the 2023 presidential election under the platform of African Action Congress (AAC), revealed he received a formal notification from X that the DSS had requested the deletion of his tweet. The secret police later posted the letter it sent to the platform on its official account on Sunday evening.
In reaction, Amnesty International described the DSS action as an outrageous violation of human rights and a desperate attempt at censorship.
“The DSS targeting of Sowore’s X account is being done without any legal justification, as recognised under international human rights law, and this represents a violation of Nigeria’s obligations under the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Nigeria has ratified both human rights treaties,” the organisation said in a statement.
Amnesty warned the DSS to immediately withdraw its “shocking demand” and called on Nigerian authorities to respect citizens’ rights online.
“Nigerian authorities must refrain from violating human rights online, including the rights to freedom of expression and privacy, and fulfil their constitutional and international human rights obligations,” it said.
The rights group also urged X not to bow to censorship pressures from the Nigerian government.
“On its part, X must not yield to censorship demands of the Nigerian government, through targeting the voices of activists, and must do all in its power to protect freedom of expression on its platform,” Amnesty International added.
