By Elochukwu Ohagi
Philosopher, Teacher And Activist, 2022
I started noticing this way back in 2017, that the pages I use on Faceb00k are getting lesser views and comments. I have a page that have gotten one of its videos watched by 2 million people. Before you know it, everything went down. The likes and followers started depreciating instead of increasing. Nothing posted there ever get upto 30 comments. That's a page with up to 30k likes and followers. Funny enough the page has remained on 30k plus since 2017 till today.
Then again, Biafrans on Faceb00k faced lots of Faceb00k ban. You are banned over some ridiculous offences in the name of going against some Faceb00k community standards. Recently, it has become more ridiculous as comments like "I stand with DOS", "I stand with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu" have been flagged down as going against Faceb00k community standards.
Faceb00k Nigería is in bed with the oppressive Fulanii led Nigería government, who is known with numerous human rights abuses. During #EndSARS protests, Faceb00k blocked and banned many accounts for posting a Nigería flag stained with the blood of a Nigerían youth gunned down by Nigería military. Faceb00k called it fake news. Faceb00k later came back to apologise for such behaviour.
Today, pages belonging to Biafrans on Faceb00k are under attack. They are constantly accused of going against Faceb00k community standards. With their app they go into your system, making it to malfunction. As it stands, I doubt if Faceb00k is trustworthy. The arrests and kîllings of Activists in Nigería might be connected to unholy Faceb00k romance with Nigería government. They do what they can't do elsewhere around the world in Nigería, because the leaders in Nigería support them with bribes.
When Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was kidnapped in Kenya and rendition to Nigería, many that rose against IPOB leadership in a bid to discredit the leadership said that no body comments on Radio Biafra Faceb00k page again. They called it a sign that the people have rejected DOS. What happened was that the said page was under attack by owners of Faceb00k. Not only that you can't see the page on your newsfeed unless you search for it, they still made it difficult to scroll down on the page. They made it easier for you to see news and posts against Biafra, than posts speaking the truth about Biafra.
Twitter became the source of consolation to Biafrans, as millions of Biafrans moved into twitter to continue the message of freedom and to expose the atrocities of the Nigería government against Biafrans. But recently, after the intimidating more than one year ban against twitter by Nigería government, twitter tilted towards serving the interest of the oppressive Nigería government against the Biafra people. I first noticed that twitter has removed anything concerning Biafra among trending words on twitter. As it stands now even if you trend #FreeMaziNnamdiKanu or #freebiafra for more than one million times, twitter will never record it. That's exactly what Biafrans are facing in the hands of social media Giants.
Recently, I had to delete twitter app from my phone as they turned their app into a bugging machine just to disrupt activities of Biafrans on twitter. Biafrans have taken to their social media pages to complain against this injustice meted against them, but I think it is not enough. IPOB leadership should take it up with this major social media network. IPOB should officially petition their headquarters, or even drag them to court both in Europe and America if need be.
Social media giants can't continue to claim being the voice of the voiceless in the world, but collude with the oppressive barbaric governments in Africa to work against the oppressed people.
Elochukwu Ohagi, 2022.
