#END SARS: Nigerian Youths Thank Twitter CEO For Launching Emoji in Support of Protest

By Ayo Kehinde

Nigerian youths are thanking Twitter owner, Jack Dorsey, for launching an emoji in support of anti-police brutality protests in Nigeria. They have taken to their twitter accounts to deliver their messages and relate current updates on the protest. Twitter was down for some hours and many who had earlier suspected the social media outfit had bowed to pressure to kill the main source of conversation among the youths, are not only thanking Dorsey for the emoji but also stating he probably suspended the account to create the emoji.

The CEO of the social media platform, Jack Dorsey, tweeted the #EndSARS hashtag with the new emoji on Friday morning.

“The emoji, a raised fist in the colours of the Nigerian flag, has already been widely used on the social media platform.”

This is the second week of demonstrations against police in brutality which started online and have spread nationwide and abroad, including in London, Berlin, Toronto and Washington.

The protests initially called for the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, a police unit widely accused of extortion, torture and extra-judicial killings.

  President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday ordered that the unit would be dissolved, while the National Executive Council, NEC, has directed all 36 state governors to take over police units in the meantime while a constituted judicial enquiry into alleged extra-judicial killings by policemen has six days to submit its finding to the federal government. Also, the Nigeria Governors Forum, after listening to a briefing by the Inspector General of Police at a meeting, urged the IGP to suspend the Special Weapons Tactical Team, SWAT, immediately set up to replace the SARS, bring erring officers to book and consult widely with stakeholders before embarking on reforms.