American microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, has deleted a tweet in which Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, threatened to give the “Nigerian civil war” treatment to fellow citizens.
Buhari had issued the threat while reacting to the arson attacks on offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Nigeria Police Force in parts of the country.
The president had said, “Those of us in the fields for 30 months (during the 1967-1970 Biafra-Nigerian Civil War), who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”
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Buhari also tweeted the texts of his speech on his personal twitter account, saying, “We are going to be very hard sooner than later.”
The tweets quickly generated reactions from Nigerians who were infuriated by the president’s choice of words.
Twitter, apparently acting on the anger expressed by Nigerians on the social media platform, deleted part of Buhari’s tweets containing the threat and appended a link beneath the president’s tweets which says “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules”.
The company explained possible actions it could take on the account if it further violates its rules, which includes “permanent suspension” of the account.
“This is our most severe enforcement action. Permanently suspending an account will remove it from global view, and the violator will not be allowed to create new accounts. When we permanently suspend an account, we notify people that they have been suspended for abuse violations, and explain which policy or policies they have violated and which content was in violation.
“Violators can appeal permanent suspensions if they believe we made an error. They can do this through the platform interface or by filing a report. Upon appeal, if we find that a suspension is valid, we respond to the appeal with information on the policy that the account has violated,” said Twitter.