The Federal Government on Friday announced the indefinite suspension of the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
The FG ironically announced the ban on Twitter.
This comes after Twitter deleted a genocidal threat against Ndigbo by President Muhammad Buhari.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence, Segun Adeyemi
Special Assistant to the Office of the Minister of Information and Culture said.
The Minister said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.
What are OTT?
OTT is referred to services that go “over” the heads of cable providers, specifically streaming services.
OTT has since been applied to many other products and services that stream content to users using the internet as a replacement for pre-existing infrastructure.
An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.
Over–the–top media services (OTT) platforms have become quite popular in the last few years around the world.
OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content, according to Garnesh Kadem.
In broadcasting, over-the-top (OTT) content is the audio, video, and other media content delivered over the Internet, without the involvement of a multiple-system operator (MSO) in the control or distribution of the content.
The Internet provider may be aware of the contents of the Internet Protocol (IP) packets but is not responsible for, nor able to control, the viewing abilities, copyrights, and/or other redistribution of the content. This model contrasts with the purchasing or rental of video or audio content from an Internet service provider (ISP), such as pay television, video on demand, and from internet protocol television (IPTV).
OTT refers to content from a third party that is delivered to an end-user, with the ISP simply transporting IP packets.
Streaming services such as Hulu, YouTube TV, and Netflix have been responsible for millions of people “cutting the cord,” circumventing the need to pay cable providers for content delivery. These are sometimes referred to as VOD (video on demand), but more on that later.
