Nigerians angry about their government's recent banning of Twitter have understandably focused their ire on President Muhammadu Buhari: the crackdown was prompted by Twitter's decision to take down his tweet implicitly warning separatists they could suffer the same violent end as former Biafran rebels.

But the Nigerian ban should be a warning to US lawmakers and activists, too. Their efforts to rein in US-based social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook risk restricting democratic freedoms worldwide...

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