Nigeria’s TikTok community may soon experience major changes as the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) moves to assert greater oversight over the platform’s operations in the country.
According to NITDA’s Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, TikTok, though offering fame and opportunities to some users, has also become a major distraction for many young Nigerians. He described the platform as one that “consumes the time of our youth,” stressing the need for stronger measures to ensure it contributes more positively to national development.
The agency’s new approach seeks to influence how TikTok operates locally, including the type of content that trends, how harmful materials are moderated, and how user data is managed. NITDA insists that decisions governing digital platforms used in Nigeria should not be dictated by Silicon Valley or Beijing, but by policies that reflect the country’s own values and priorities.
This push aligns with the government’s broader drive for what it calls “digital sovereignty,” an effort to strengthen Nigeria’s control over online spaces. Social media companies are already required under a national code of practice to remove flagged content within 24 hours.
TikTok, which reportedly deleted more than 7.5 million videos in Nigeria in the first half of 2025, may soon come under even closer scrutiny as regulators move to set new standards for digital platforms operating in the country,
