The Nigerian government has said it is working closely with major social media companies to identify and remove accounts used by terrorist and criminal groups to promote violence, raise funds, and communicate with supporters.
Speaking at an end-of-year briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, the director general of the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Maj Gen Adamu Laka, said platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and X had been exploited by armed groups to publicise their operations, display stolen items and engage directly with followers.
Laka said security agencies had held repeated engagements with social media companies to flag content and accounts that posed threats to national security, leading to the takedown of numerous profiles.
“The issue of social media platforms used by terrorist groups—if you knew how many accounts we took down,” he said. “We have had several meetings with platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and X. 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 said armed groups had at one point used TikTok to showcase looted goods and even livestream their activities. “There was a time when bandits would go on TikTok showing their loot. We took those accounts down—you don’t see that again,” he said. “At some point, they were even doing live streams and holding conversations, but we’ve been able to handle all that.”
According to Laka, terrorist tactics continue to evolve, with groups increasingly relying on aliases and unverified accounts to evade detection. He said security agencies were constantly adapting to counter such developments, both online and offline.
The counter-terrorism chief also identified ransom payments as a major source of terrorist financing, warning that point-of-sale (POS) operators were increasingly being used to move funds. In many cases, he said, ransom payments were transferred into accounts belonging to POS operators, who then released cash to kidnappers, complicating efforts to trace the money.
“You see a transfer made by terrorists, and when you investigate the account, it belongs to a POS operator,” Laka said. “The kidnappers give out the POS operator’s number, the money is transferred, and they go to collect it.”
He said security agencies had intensified efforts to track ransom payments, arrest those involved and disrupt terror financing networks, though he stressed that operational details could not be disclosed for security reasons. Several arrests and prosecutions had already been carried out, he added, alongside asset recoveries and seizures linked to terrorism financing.
Laka said Nigeria’s recent progress in meeting the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force was partly the result of coordinated investigations by a joint committee involving security agencies, financial intelligence units and the judiciary.
While acknowledging the challenges posed by porous borders and instability in parts of the Sahel, he said Nigeria would continue to strengthen both its physical and digital counter-terrorism efforts. “Towards the end of 2023, the security situation in Nigeria was improving,” he said. “But after the coups in some Sahel countries, the situation worsened because these terrorist groups have connections across the region.
“So 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. We are doing our best, and we will not relent. In 2026, we are going to up our game.”
Social media platforms have increasingly come under pressure globally to remove content linked to terrorism and organised crime, amid concerns that online tools are being used to spread propaganda, coordinate activities and finance violence.
