The Department of State Services has dragged Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, social media platforms, X Corp and Meta Incorporation to court over an anti-President Bola Tinubu post by Sowore.
The latter called the President “criminal” for saying in Brazil that on his watch Nigeria has become a corruption free country.
Consequently the DSS wrote Sowore to delete the message on both platforms, and apologise, which the activist decline.
The secret police also asked the two social media platforms to bring down the post, a request that didn’t gain traction with them.
The latest in the saga is that the DSS has filed a five-count charge against the radical publisher-cum-politician alongside X and Meta, owner of Facebook.
Sowore himself brought this to light in posts on his X and Facebook handles where he shared letter to him from X in respect of the matter.
“The State Security Service, alias @OfficialDSSNG today filed a 5-count charge at the Federal High Court in Abuja against ‘X’ (formerly Twitter Facebook, and myself. They claimed that because I called Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a criminal, I have somehow committed a set of ‘novel’ offences they invented and spread across five counts.
“It’s hard to believe there’s anyone sensible left in these offices that should be making Nigeria work. Regardless, I will be present whenever this case is assigned for trial. #RevolutionNow.
“This morning, X (formerly Twitter) officially contacted me about the despicable threat letter they received from the lawless DSS over my Tweet on Tinubu. One option I will NOT be taking is deleting that Tweet. Thank you, @X,” he wrote.
Before sharing message sent to him by X, which contains this, “Hello @YeleSowore. In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that X has received a request from the Department of State Services regarding your X account, @YeleSowore, that claims the following content violates the law(s) of Nigeria. @YeleSowore, we have not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request.
“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 authorised entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their account. We provide notice whether or not the user lives in the country where the request originated. This page provides more information.
“We understand that receiving this type of notice can be an unsettling experience. While X is not able to provide legal advice, we want you to have an opportunity to evaluate the request and, if you wish, take appropriate action to protect your interests.
“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.
“For more information on legal requests X receives from governments worldwide, please refer to this article on our Help Centre and our biannual Transparency Report.”
