Social media giants, X(formerly Twitter) and Meta, have kept mute as former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, has counter-sued the Department of State Security over a social media post in which he described President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal.”

The Federal Government had filed criminal charges against the activist and the tech giants last week.

The charges were filed at the instance of the Department of State Services before the Federal High Court in Abuja.

In its charges marked FHC/ABJ/CR/481/2025, the Federal Government alleged that Sowore, using his verified X handle, @YeleSowore, wrote: “This criminal @officialABAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly!”

The Federal Government also listed X (formerly Twitter) and Meta (owners of Facebook) as co-defendants alongside Sowore. The government said Sowore’s post, made on August 25, contravened Section 24(2)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Amendment Act, 2024.

The case stemmed from Sowore’s posts during Tinubu’s visit to Brazil, where the President claimed his administration had eliminated corruption.

However, Sowore refused to delete the post and instead counter-sued the DSS before the Federal High Court in Abuja, challenging what he described as unconstitutional censorship of his social media accounts.

His lawyer, Tope Temokun, said, “These suits were filed to challenge the unconstitutional censorship initiated by the DSS/SSS against Sowore’s accounts maintained with Meta and X.”

“This is about the survival of free speech in Nigeria. If state agencies can dictate to global platforms who may speak and what may be said, then no Nigerian is safe; their voices will be silenced at the whim of those in power,” Temokun added.

He argued that censorship of political criticism was alien to democracy, citing Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression.

The suit seeks declarations that the DSS has no authority to censor Nigerians on social media, that Meta and X must not allow their platforms to be used as tools of repression, and that Sowore’s rights—and those of other Nigerians—be fully protected against unlawful interference.

“We call on all lovers of freedom, journalists, human rights defenders, and the Nigerian people to stand firm. Today it is Sowore; tomorrow it may be you,” the statement said.

The Nigerian government has long held concerns over the use of X in the country; for example, the End SARS protest began on X and got amplified in 2020 when it had 48 million tweets in ten days.

Muhammadu Buhari’s government floated the idea of social media regulation on different occasions prior to banning X. Attempts to pass an anti-social media bill in the past have failed majorly due to massive outcry on X. Days before the ban, the former minister of information Lai Mohammed called X’s activities in Nigeria suspicious, citing its influence on the End SARS protests.

Twitter was blocked in Nigeria from 5 June 2021 to 13 January 2022. The Buhari government imposed a ban on the social network after it deleted tweets made by, and temporarily suspended, him, warning the southeastern people of Nigeria, predominantly Igbo people, of a potential repeat of the 1967 Nigerian Civil War due to the ongoing insurgency in Southeastern Nigeria.

The Nigerian government claimed that the deletion of the late president’s tweets factored into their decision, but it was ultimately based on “a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences”, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.

In January 2022, Nigeria lifted its blocking of X after the platform agreed to establish a legal entity within the country sometime in the first quarter of 2022.