It is not a news again that a month ago, June 4, 2021 precisely, Federal Government of Nigeria suspends the operation of Twitter across its country. Of course, Nigeria is not the first country to carried out such suspension, country like Iran, China, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Russia, South Korea, Tanzania, Turkey, Venezuela, Egypt among others have had one issue or others which led to the suspension of twitter in those countries in the past.

No doubt, Twitter has established itself among today's recognized social media applications, with almost 40 millions Nigeria subscribers, investigation revealed the fact that most subscribed users use twitter as a third party to carry out their business activities while some use it for social engagement alone, as such, after the suspension, Nigerians found it difficult to cope without daily login to this application.

For many decades ago, one (1) of the attributes of Nigerians is the ability to adapt and survive any challenges and twitter suspension is like a child's play which never near any challenge ever faced. Of course, as expected, within a little time frame when Nigeria government thought they have done their worst to the populace, the way out surfaced as many Nigerians put in all effort to bypass the so called official channel and that is the topic of today's discussion.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) remained the best option to consider whenever there is a need to manipulate one's IP address on a computer network.

Oh, did you just ask what an IP address is?

IP address means Internet Protocol address, it is a unique number just like a matriculation number that is usually given to students on getting admission to a graduate school, it is a unique number attached to every device on a computer network for easy identification. It is through this IP address that we can send and receive data via internet connection. Basically, it is of four (4) different types: public, private, static and dynamic.

It is generally of the form : 194.212.28.201

You can check for your device's IP address here, along with the location where you are connecting from. With your location being revealed to the network provider, thus it is possible to track you down to your door step. Also to block you from accessing a particular network or website is possible, all what the authority such as the government of a country needs to do is to give a directive to the national body in charge of broadcasting corporation to begin streaming and licensing network services and IP address has a vital role in carrying out such operation. As such, you need a means to encrypt or hide the existence of your data when connected to a public network and most especially your location and that is exactly what Virtual Private Network (VPN) does.

There exist various application of Virtual Private Network (VPN) on a play store for download, few among them are : Windscribe, USA VPN, NordVPN, PIA, NortonVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Cyberghost, Strong VPN, Hotspot shield e.t.c.

After successful installation of any of the application of VPN discussed above, changing the country of location should be done along with the installation after which one is free to enjoy the privacy of its data by having the opportunity to visit a suspended website like Twitter.

Dangers of using Virtual Private Network (VPN)

There is no technology with advantages and leaves no disadvantage, Virtual Private Network (VPN) despite its benefits, poses a number of risk.

• Installing the wrong Virtual Private Network (VPN)

As it is common to most of the top applications out there and VPN is no doubt one of the useful applications with many of its free application for download on play store. One should ensure the right VPN is downloaded for use in order to avoid getting to the wrong hand. Scammers are out there to collect your data via internet and use it for their own advantage and one of the means to do that is to develop a like version of the intended application for download as such one should be careful when choosing the VPN.

• A Breach in Users Data Privacy and Protection

We all know the value attached to users data nowadays, many applications out there collect data either during the course of installation or during the usage of the application and sell it out, a typical example of this scenario is what Facebook did some years back, although most of these applications promise to protect one's data and VPN is among them but the fact that you are using the free version, you may be consider as a product and not the consumer as such one should be careful when dealing with sensitive information such as your account password among others.

Final thought!

No doubt, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) makes it easy to bypass the official channel by hidden the existence of one's data online since VPN encrypt one's information online as such, one should not forget the risks attached with its usage, especially the dangers discussed above.

When carrying out transaction related to bank or any other sensitive information, it is advisable to switch OFF VPN application and only put it ON when you only want to access a suspended or blocked website like Twitter in Nigeria.

Thanks for reading through and I hope the message is clear. Keep enjoying!

References

1. Nigeria's Twitter ban: Government orders prosecution of violators
2. IP Address
3. What Is a VPN? - Virtual Private Network
4. What is VPN? How It Works, Types of VPN