Human rights activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 elections, Omoyele Sowore, has said that he will not bow to pressure from the Department of State Services (DSS) to delete a social media post considered critical of President Bola Tinubu.
The DSS had written to X (formerly Twitter), demanding that Sowore’s verified account be deactivated and his recent post on Tinubu removed, alleging it could “incite violence and threaten national security.”
In a statement shared on Sunday, Sowore revealed that X had officially notified him of the request.
“This morning, X officially contacted me about the despicable threat letter they received from the DSS over my tweet on Tinubu,” he said.
“One option I will not be taking is deleting that tweet. Thank you, X.”
The activist also published a notice from X confirming that the DSS had petitioned the platform to take down his content and suspend his account within 24 hours or face “far-reaching measures” from the federal government.
However, X clarified that no action had been taken against Sowore’s post, stressing its commitment to free expression.
“As X strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of our users, it is our policy to notify our users if we receive a legal request from an authorized entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their account,” the company wrote.
The platform further noted that while it could not provide legal advice, it urged Sowore to evaluate the request and consider possible options.
“This may include seeking legal counsel and challenging the request in court, contacting relevant civil society organisations, voluntarily deleting the content (if applicable), or finding some other resolution,” X stated.
