Agency collaborates with TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and X to remove extremist content
The National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) has intensified efforts to curb the use of social media by terrorist and criminal groups, the agency’s Director-General, Adamu Laka, revealed on Tuesday during an end-of-year briefing in Abuja.
Laka said platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and X have been exploited by terrorists to promote attacks, display looted property, and communicate with supporters.
“The issue of social media platforms used by terrorist groups… if you knew how many accounts we took down. We have had several meetings with these social media platforms,” Laka said.
“They are businesses looking to grow their subscribers, but we engage them, explain the effects of certain posts on national security, and we take them down.”
He added that at one point, bandits were livestreaming their activities and displaying loot online, but coordinated interventions by the NCTC successfully removed these accounts.
Terrorists adapting tactics
The NCTC boss also highlighted new methods employed by terrorists to move ransom payments, including using point-of-sale (POS) operators as intermediaries.
“You see a transfer made by terrorists, and when you investigate the account, it belongs to a POS operator. The kidnappers give out the POS operator’s number, the money is transferred, and they go to collect it,” he explained.
He noted that security agencies have stepped up tracking of ransom payments and continue to dismantle terror financing networks.
Regional instability compounds threats
Laka said coups in some Sahel countries have worsened the security situation in Nigeria due to cross-border terrorist networks.
“Nigeria has to play a leadership role in West Africa and the Sahel to address these threats. As long as those countries continue to face these challenges, Nigeria will also face them,” he said.
“We are doing our best, and we will not relent. In 2026, we are going to up our game.”
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