Tech entrepreneur and owner of X, Elon Musk, has declared that the social media platform will continue to operate as a people-driven space where citizens, not governments, shape the prevailing narrative.
In a post shared on Sunday, Musk emphasised that X was designed to give room for all sides of an argument, stressing that fact-checking and corrections are managed by its community-based system rather than state influence.
“On this platform, the people decide the narrative. All sides of the argument are heard. Community Notes corrects everyone without exception. Notes, data, and code are open-source. Grok adds another layer of fact-checking,” Musk wrote.
Musk’s statement comes against the backdrop of reports that the Federal Government has written to X Corporation, demanding the suspension of African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, over his critical posts against President Bola Tinubu.
According to sources, the Department of State Services (DSS) requested the immediate removal of a tweet in which Sowore allegedly disparaged Tinubu and posed what authorities described as a “threat to national security.”
On 25 August, Sowore, through his verified handle @YeleSowore, uploaded a video clip of Tinubu during his state visit to Brazil. In the footage, Tinubu had remarked that corruption was “no more” in Nigeria—an assertion Sowore swiftly condemned, accusing the President of whitewashing reality.
A former presidential contender and publisher of the whistleblowing platform Sahara Reporters, Sowore has long been one of the fiercest critics of successive Nigerian governments. His latest interventions on X have again unsettled the political class, with calls in official quarters for stronger clampdowns on perceived dissent.
Musk’s insistence that narratives on X are dictated by its users sets the stage for a potential standoff with Nigeria’s political establishment. While government officials cite national security, digital rights advocates argue that attempts to silence Sowore highlight the shrinking space for free speech in Africa’s largest democracy.
