Twitter, civil activisms and EndSARS protest in Nigeria as a developing democracy

Abstract

The study examined how Twitter was used to organize the #EndSARS protest in Nigeria. It also investigated the extent to which Twitter has promoted or degraded democracy in Nigeria through its support for enhancing freedom of expression and being a driver of social protests. The study adopted a qualitative approach using in-depth interview. Twenty Nigerian youths were purposely selected across the South-western states of Nigeria through snow balling technique. The study found that Twitter is effective for social protests as witnessed in the #EndSARS protest because it is a magnificent and functional tool that is powerful in creating a strong tie and thick engagement during and after the protest. However, the effect of Twitter is temporal as the ties it can create get weak by the day. The study concluded that Twitter can either enhance or degrade democracy depending on how its users, who are the core driver of change, use it in democratic process.

Keywords

• Twitter
• SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad)
• social activism
• protests
• social media
• democracy