Fake tweet paints Twitter apologetic to Nigerian Government

Claim: A viral Twitter screenshot with the inscription of the “Twitter Public Policy” claims Twitter is apologetic for the recent action it took against President Buhari’s tweet. 

The viral screenshot of a tweet alleged to have been tweeted by ‘Twitter Public Policy’ is false. The screenshot of the tweet and others alike were created using an online tool.

Full Text

It is no more news that the Nigerian government has banned Twitter’s operations in the country. While this decision taken by the government was not unexpected, the action seems to have aroused diverse debates from members of the public.

After the EndSARS protest in the last quarter of 2020, the Nigerian government accused Twitter of arousing tension in the country – launching what appeared to be a subtle feud between Twitter and the Nigerian government.

The climax of the situation unfolded when Twitter deleted President Buhari’s recent tweet in what it described as a breach of its policy. However, days after Twitter’s action on the president, the Nigerian government banned Twitter’s operations in Nigeria in what many saw as Mr Buhari’s response to Twitter’s action.

In response to the now popular topic in the Nigerian public sphere, Twitter shared on its ‘public policy’ handle its concerns over ‘open internet’ in Nigeria; apparently standing by its actions with no apologies directed to the Nigerian government.

Nonetheless, a viral screenshot of a tweet bearing the inscription of the ‘Twitter Public Policy’ handle, appeared online with a rather new narrative that seems to suggest Twitter’s desire to apologise and mend things with the Nigerian government.

With no date stamps, the acclaimed tweet appeared on June 5, 2021, and was widely shared on WhatsApp and across different social media platforms. Some users who came across the alleged tweet expressed disbelief and stressed that Twitter ‘will not’ share such a tweet, while others felt it was Twitter’s way of making amends with the Nigerian government. On Nairaland, a popular interactive site in Nigeria with over 3 million active users, the alleged tweet was shared alongside the narrative “Twitter bows to Nigerian Government.”

Whatever the case may be, confirming the originality and validity of such a tweet is vital, especially at a time many Nigerians are trying to wrap their hands around the novel action taken by the government.

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Verification 

DUBAWA first launched a timeline search on all the recent posts made by the ‘Twitter Public Policy’ handle. The alleged tweet, circulating as a screenshot, was not found anywhere on the Twitter Public Policy handle. This finding, however, led DUBAWA to uncover an online tool that allows users to create fake screenshots while posing as anyone they deem fit.

The Tweet Generator

‘The Tweet generator’ is a website based application that allows online users to create fake tweets. The application can be used to create a tweet template of choice, with a date of choice and all other things that a real tweet embodies. This same tool was also used to create a fake narrative referenced to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook.

Disclaimer: the above tweet is not real.

It was only created  for the purpose of illustration and clarity. 

Evenmore, other red flags uncovered by DUBAWA from the acclaimed tweet shows that it is entirely fake.

Dubawa also conducted image forensics of the fake tweet in comparison to the real one taken from ‘Twitter Public Policy’ page. We conducted an error level analysis on the two images,  checking the authenticity of opacity (0.95), error scale (94), JPEG Quality (94) on the same scale.

Image 1

Image 2

Conclusion

The tweet under scrutiny is confirmed to be fake. It was not from Twitter nor was it ever tweeted. The manipulation of Twitter screenshots is now a common phenomenon used to mislead unsuspecting members of the public. This claim is false.