EFFECT OF TWITTER BAN ON TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF MTN, GLO AND AIRTEL)
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0 INTRODUCTION
Our focus in this chapter is to critically examine relevant literature that would assist in explaining the research problem and furthermore recognize the efforts of scholars who had previously contributed immensely to similar research. The chapter intends to deepen the understanding of the study and close the perceived gaps.
2.1 CONCEPTUAL REVIEW
TELECOM SECTOR
The Nigerian telecommunication sector is the largest segment of the Information and Communication sector. Nigeria has one of the largest telecom markets in Africa. The Nigerian Telecommunication sector has evolved over the years to an oligopolistic market structure (a small number of firms have the majority of market share). The sector includes a strong multinational presence. The leading players are MTN, a South African based multinational company with a market share of 37.21%, Airtel (an Indian based multinational telecommunication), Glo (a Nigerian multinational company) and 9mobile (formerly Etisalat).
The sector over the years has contributed immensely to Nigeria’s economy and the lives of Nigerians. The advancement of mobile phone usage from basic phone telephony to new enhanced services and the introduction of new technology within diverse sectors of the country have seen the sector grow massively. The sector has experienced rapid growth and helps in e.g. easier banking services (bank mobile apps) and access to e-learning platforms to Nigerians.
However, the Nigerian telecommunication sector saw stalled growth during the second half of 2016 leading to delays or deferrals of expansions and upgrades to networks and this trend has continued into Q2’17. The GDP Q2’17 result showed that the telecommunications sector contracted by 1.92%. The major challenges facing the sector are low consumer purchasing power, currency movements and the recent loss of global investors. The inaccessibility of the dollar in the economy resulted in weak macroeconomic conditions. Nigeria’s weak macroeconomic conditions have led to weak labor market dynamics (high unemployment and underemployment), reduced disposable income and poor corporate performance.
To ensure longterm growth and sustainability, the sector needs to focus on innovative business practices by investing their assets in more creative services that focus primarily on meeting consumer needs and establish a regulated minimum market price. These will create new streams of income for operators and mitigate the decline in their traditional revenues.
Prior to 2014, Nigeria was attractive to both local and foreign investors due to a stable currency and rise in oil prices. However, in 2016, there was a significant fall in oil prices which resulted in the shortage of dollars and depletion of external reserves, revenue shortfalls, high inflation and ultimately a recession. The naira’s severe devaluation by 215% to $490/$ as at 30th December 2016, compared to $155.71/$ at the start of 2014 pushed up the costs of imported items such as RF Coverage Equipments (Node B) and Transmission Equipments (Optical Fibre) which stifled expansion plans of most network operators from expanding their service capacity. The sector has also been affected by a reduction in consumer demand due to lower disposable income in consumption.
OVERVIEW OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN NIGERIAN COMMUNICATION SUBSECTOR The history of telecommunication industry in Nigeria is traceable to 1950’s with the first operator NITEL. NITEL’s incompetence was part of the problem that caused poor quality of industrialization and slow economic growth and development in Nigeria. As Ndukwe (2007:26) avers, “We cannot tap the full potential of this market without a sound telecommunications and information technology base.” Nigeria progressed from the telecommunication dark ages before the year 2000 as reviewed in table 2.2.1 (see appendix IV). In 1999, the statistics bear that only 400,000 connected telephone lines and as in table 2.2.2, 25,000 analogue mobile lines was in Nigeria having a total teledensity at a paltry 0.4 lines per 100 inhabitants in table 2.2.3 (see Appendix IV). Only few could afford to own landline because the connection costs were unnecessarily high; moreover, it takes a lot of time for the technicians to fix any spoilt line. At this point, Oyewola (2007) observes that, “Nigeria phone users were confine to the use of fixed phone communication system. It was therefore a common sight to see long queue at phone boots, with everyone waiting for his or her turn.” Another alternative was to purchase the NITEL unit cards for the public phone booths that were cheaper.
The digital migration marked the beginning of Nigeria telecom revolution. It bears increment and promotion of competition in the telecom industry. There was growth, in fact, while NITEL connected lines only grew at an average of 10,000 lines per annum in the four decades, (within the years of the new communication technologies,) an average growth rate of more than 4m mobile lines per annum was attained. As of September 2006, Nigeria has attained over 26m lines, (24.5m of which were digital mobile lines). The telecoms reform in Nigeria led to the establishment of NCC in the year 1992, under the Nigerian communication decree to liberalize a high potential mobile market. It was realized with the auction of four GSM licenses to NITEL, Econet wireless Nigeria, MTN Nigeria and Communications Investments Limited (CIL) in January 2001.Because CIL failed to meet its financial requirements, its license was revoked and in August 2002 awarded to Globacom. NITEL was licensed as the FNO. In table 2.2.4, the number of main lines (0.8m in 2004) is expected to increase to 1.7m by 2009 and the mobile subscribers (7.6m in 2004) is expected to be 19.6m (see appendix V). The comparism of Nigerian telecom growing economy with that of Western world has exposed the dynamism and promising future of the country’s telecoms market. Other observers including the Telecoms Consultancy Pyramid Projects anticipated a greater growth in the sector. Presently, NITEL is transitioning from the Nigerian telecoms market’s only player to an open-market competitor. Following the failed bid to sell NITEL in 2002, BPE decided to reform the former monopolist. Pentascope International was given the management contract of NITEL for three (3) years.
However, the contract was terminated just within two (2) years. Again, BPE auctioned NITEL for sell with 51% of the company up for grabs. In July 2005, BPE short-listed six interested companies: Vodacom, MTN, Egypt’s Orascom, the Chinese Consortium of Huaweii Technologies, Celtel Netherlands, and Newtel. Presently, Transcorp Nigeria Plc, an indigenous company, is managing NITEL. While NITEL was going through trauma, Globacom in 2003 took over as the SNO.
Currently, the competition is heat up with Starcomms Limited set to become the TNO and enter the Nigeria telecommunications arena. The telecom industry’s popular W.Afri.Tel attributed good remark on the rise in the Communication Subsector. The W.Afri.Tel’s launch in 2001 coincided with the start of the telecoms boom, and it has been attracting more companies into the regions. As written in corporate Nigeria (2007:154) stating, “The result was a much needed injection of FDI with a 200-fold increase from $50m in 1999 to over $10b by the end of December 2005.” In the 2005, Nigeria experienced a record year in telecommunication industry. There was rise in the PTOs operation. The teledensity raised by 100% ration of 9.47 to 100% of population to 18.18 with total investment of $30.68 billion worth of FDI attraction. In order to protect the rate of return of investors, the NCC established 5-year clause on the provision of mobile telephony service expired on February 2006. In May 2006, four PTOs were granted unified licenses to join Nigerian’s GSM operators; Intercellular Nigeria PLC, Starcomms Ltd,Prest cable and Satellite Communications, and Prestel and Multilink Telecommunications limited. More so, in most towns in Nigeria, many internet cafes operated are often connected to European internet connections. A new dimension to internet connectivity has given interested borrowers access to internet on their WAP-enabled mobile phones, smart phones and on their PCs using their phones as a modem. This is due to the introduction of GPRD by GSM operators, and other value-added services. The operation of Nigerian telecommunication industries has brought recommendation from so many organizations. NTEC on September 2006 announced that Nigeria has become one of the world’s fastest growing telecom markets and one of the liberalized telecoms market in Africa. In order to establish stronghold on the growth of the industry, NCC sets up a monthly consumer parliament on August 29, 2003 where operators meet the complaints of their customers, universal services obligations, rural telephony, and consumer empowerment. In recognizing of global linkages, it is stated in Corporate Nigeria (2006/2007:143), that “This novel approach to dealing with consumer issues has even acknowledge International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as an effective medium for getting the consumers in contact with the operator as well as the regulator.” The existence of foreign contact in the Nigerian telecommunication industry has helped Nigeria to become part of the global village.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media are believed to be media that are used for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Heinlein (2010:61) define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that builds on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social media are becoming ever-more viable platforms for communication and media services. The main idea associated with the web 2.0 applications is that it facilitates participatory information sharing, collaboration, and user-centered design. By implication, a user on the site does not only consume what he/she sees, he also actively participates in the creation and dissemination of information. Characteristically, social media sites can afford users:
• The opportunity to add value to the application as they use it through the edit box interface.
• An opportunity to exercise control on the data
• To interact on a more advanced software level.
• Create the Web by socializing and gradually moving members from the physical world to the online world.
By looking at the features presented above, one may then agree with Ron Jone’s definition of social media which he described as a “category of online media where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking, and bookmarking online. In other words, social media are social instrument of communication where users seek information, and also interact. The interaction being referred to here is the ability to provide instant feedback in term of reaction to the subject under discussion, which the traditional/mainstream media – radio, television, newspaper and magazine - cannot provide”. Owing to this special ability, social media have come to be regarded as a two-way communication channel as against the one-way communication channel of the traditional /mainstream media. These channels, of course, are usually social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn etc., which Boyd and Ellison (2007) described as: Web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semipublic profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.
Naturally, because some of these sites incorporate new information and communication tools, such as mobile connectivity, blogging, and photo/video-sharing, they have come to be referred to as web-based and mobile technologies that allow interactive dialogue among users within a network that transcends space and time.
Although there are different social media, ranging from those that provide social sharing, to those that provide social networks for professionals within the same field, or to interact with other professionals in other fields, but generally speaking, the network provides for users to sign up, create a profile, and begin sending short messages about what they are doing and thinking. In effect therefore, social media enables users to send and receive updates through e-mails, Instant Messages, and in the case of mobile cell phones, pings. The bottom line here is that users can access information wherever, however and whenever they want it and at a time they need it without missing out on conversation. In the first instance, the word social media suggest there is a process of interaction between two or more persons. The basic idea behind social media is to create mutual relationship among users. On the other hand, the term media suggest a channel through which information is passed to a large diverse audience that may not be within the same geographical area. Together, the two suggest a medium for social interaction among various people that are connected on the same subscribed social network from different locations.
EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media have evolved through Web 2.0, a term coined to describe a new wave of Internet innovation that enables users to publish and exchange content online Kaplan and Haenlein (cited in Eun 2011:6). Social media encompass a wide range of electronic forums, including blogs, microblogs (e.g., Twitter), social networking sites (e.g., Facebook), creative work-sharing sites (e.g., YouTube), business networking sites (e.g., LinkedIn), collaborative websites (e.g., Wikipedia), and virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life). Among these social media, social networks and microblogs are the most popular, accounting for 22.7% of all time spent online in the United States ACNielsen (cited in Eun 2011. According to Dominick (2009) Web 2.0 is the idea of a second-generation Internet that is highly participatory, allowing users to improve it as they use it. Social media contents are primarily written and published by their users and not owners or employees of the site. For instance, most adverts, videos and pictures on Facebook and Twitter are uploaded by visitors of the sites.
Jenkins et. al (cited in Stagno: 2) observe that Web 2.0 has been growing tremendously as it facilitates the production and dissemination of information, allows for the involvements in participatory culture to share individual expressions or creations and bring people with similar interests and goals to connect with each other on blogs, social networking sites and others. Few years ago, websites were quite static and passive. There was no much interaction going on as they were mostly corporate websites. The only way an individual could participate online was to send an email or form to the owners or web master of the website and hope that they would get back to him. This type of arrangement was called Web 1.0, referred to as “first generation Web where users generally consumed content. The audience went to web pages and looked at content provided by the website owner” Dominick (2009:283). But today, users have become producers which mean that they simultaneously consume and produce information (Bruns, cited in Stagno 2010:1). Igbinidu (2011:26) explains that the first exploitation of the potential of the social media especially to spread a candidates message, gain support and get the public engaged was through the 2008 presidential campaign by the then Senator Barack Obama who eventually became American president. The Obama campaign reached five million people on 15 different social media platforms. As at November 2008, Obama had approximately 2.3 million Facebook supporters; 115,000 Twitter followers and 50 million viewers of his YouTube videos. Facebook is a social network for connecting people with those around them,friends, family, coworkers, or simply others with similar interests.
Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 alongside his roommates and fellow computer science classmates Eduardo Saverin, Austin Maskovitz and Chris Hughes at Harvard University in the U.S (Locke cited in Nnaane 2011:15). Initially, Facebook membership was restricted to Harvard students but later extended to other colleges in Boston and Stanford University all in the U.S. “Since 2006, Facebook has expanded beyond Harvard to other 24 schools, corporations, businesses and any user across the world” (Dunay & Krueger 2010:27). Zuckerberg, cited in (Nweze, 2009) explains that advertising on Facebook is an opportunity for companies to reach their exact audience and connect real customers to their business. Facebook allow users to connect and share information in a variety of ways. Facebook allow users to post photos, videos and customize their profile content. Facebook has added a number of features over the past few years, including instant messaging/chat and apps (and their developer platform).Users communicate with one another through different methods, for instance, private messaging as well as writing on another user’s wall. Wall posts are visible to that user’s friends, but usually not to the general public. Users can also change their privacy settings to allow different users to see different parts of their profile, based on any existing relationships (the basic privacy settings are “only friends”, “friends of friends”, and “everyone”). Users can post notes that are visible to all of their friends. Users can also comment on or, more recently, “like” the posts of their friends, and conversations often occur within the comment sections among multiple people (Dunay & Krueger2010:27). Facebook pages are online location for businesses, organisations, public figures, entertainers, professionals of all types and individuals with the intention of marketing themselves to the Facebook community. Facebook Pages provide a powerful set of online tools for engaging with customers (or, as they are called in Facebook, fans). Every day, 3.5 million people become fans of a Facebook Page. According to eMetric’s February 2009 Facebook Usage Metrics Worldwide Study, although popular consumer brands enjoy large installed fan bases, smaller brands, business-to-business (B2B) companies, consultants, and personalities can also build a loyal following by using Facebook Page (Dunay & Krueger2010:27). He notes further that if Facebook were a country, it would be the sixth most populated nation in the world. This is because the site has grown to be perhaps the most popular all over the world with a user base of over 660 million (Amaefule 2011:20). The number of users continues to grow steadily.
Tyler (2010: para 3) explains that there are currently 1.7 billion Internet users worldwide, almost 57% of them have joined a social network, 66% of all Internet users visit social networks, Facebook is used more than 80 million hours daily and that close to 15million photos, wall posts, links, news, notes etc. are shared on Facebook every day. According to Idaresit (cited in Ofose, 2010) about 39.6 percent of all Internet traffic from Africa is from Nigeria and 29.8 percent of the population access the Internet. As at 2009, there were 30 million Nigerians on Facebook. Of this figure, 67% were males while 33% were females. These figures have changed since then. Lagos alone now has about two million subscribers to Facebook (Ogunbayo, 2011: 44). Supporting the above, Solaja and Odiaka (2010:32) state that “such a large population naturally offers a good basis for the adoption of the platforms for marketing purposes”. Facebook offers targeted communication initiative to select customers groups for product development as well as service enhancement and also be able to engage their customers and non-customers on platforms they are comfortable with while recovery real-time feedback on what they have to say about their brand, products and services (Wmworia (2010, February 11). In Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan boasts of the highest fan base with 97,000 Nigerian Facebook users. Both local and international brands would consider placing an ad on the presidents Facebook fan page as traffic to the site is unbelievably high Adebija (cited in Ofose 2010). Twitter was launched in 2006 and founded by Dorsey Jack, Biz Stone and Evan Williams as a free micro blogging social network that enables users to post short messages known as tweets that could be viewed by other subscribers, more commonly referred to as followers. Tweets of not more than 140 characters can be sent from and received by almost any kind of electronic equipment, including desktop computers, laptops, Black Berrys, iphones, and other mobile devices (Farhi 2009). According to D’Monte (cited in Nnaane 2011) Twitter has gained popularity worldwide and is estimated to have 200 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries a day. Message brevity, in contrast with lengthy e-mail marketing messages, has been hailed as an asset of microblogs; which 26 enables consumers to browse a large amount of updates efficiently (Zhao and Rosson, 2009). Aided by increases in smart phone sales and the continued rollout of Internet and mobile network infrastructure, Twitter is poised for even more growth (Wauters, 2010). Users broadcast messages to the masses, without visiting a particular person's profile to do so. By following other users, people automatically receive messages on their own Twitter home pages tweeted by those whom they are following. Even though some Twitter accounts are kept private, and some users require that they offer approval to people who wish to follow them, messages exchanged on this microblog are public by default, thus everyone can read and comment on a Twitter message (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Chiang (2011) explains that visitors increased by 1,382, to 7 million in February 2009, up from 475,000 in February 2008, “making it the fastest growing social media site for that month” (McGiboney, 2009)
Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface or its mobile-device application software ("app"), though the service could also be accessed via SMS before April 2020.The service is provided by Twitter, Inc., a corporation based in San Francisco, California, and has more than 25 offices around the world. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but the limit was doubled to 280 for non-CJK languages in November 2017.Audio and video tweets remain limited to 140 seconds for most accounts (D'Monte, Leslie 2009).
Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 and launched in July of that year. By 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day,and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day.In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet". As of Q1 2019, Twitter had more than 330 million monthly active users.Twitter is a some-to-many microblogging service, given that the vast majority of tweets are written by a small minority of users( twitter search team 2011).
In April 2014, Twitter underwent a redesign that made the site resemble Facebook somewhat. On June 4, 2014, Twitter announced that it would acquire Namo Media, a technology firm specializing in "native advertising" for mobile devices. On June 19, 2014, Twitter announced that it had reached an undisclosed deal to buy SnappyTV, a service that helps edit and share video from television broadcasts.The company was helping broadcasters and rights holders to share video content both organically across social and via Twitter's Amplify program.In July 2014, Twitter announced that it intended to buy a young company called CardSpring for an undisclosed sum. CardSpring enabled retailers to offer online shoppers coupons that they could automatically sync to their credit cards in order to receive discounts when they shopped in physical stores. On July 31, 2014, Twitter announced that it had acquired a small password-security startup called Mitro. On October 29, 2014, Twitter announced a new partnership with IBM. The partnership was intended to help businesses use Twitter data to understand their customers, businesses and other trends.
On February 11, 2015, Twitter announced that it had acquired Niche, an advertising network for social media stars, founded by Rob Fishman and Darren Lachtman. The acquisition price was reportedly $50 million. On March 13, 2015, Twitter announced its acquisition of Periscope, an app that allows live streaming of video. In April 2015, the Twitter.com desktop homepage changed.
IMPACT OF TWITTER BAN ON TELECOMMUNICATION COMMUNICATION INDUSTRIES
More than 39 million Nigerians use twitter as a political platform to stay informed and updated and to voice their opinions including government discontent.On 5 June 2021, the Nigerian government officially put an indefinite ban on Twitter (BBC 2021) restricting it from operating in Nigeria after the social media platform deleted tweets made by the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari warning the south eastern people of Nigeria, predominantly Igbo people, of a potential repeat of the 1967 Biafran Civil War due the ongoing insurgency in Southeastern Nigeria. The Nigerian government claimed that the deletion of the President's tweets factored into their decision but it was ultimately based on "a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences".
Telecoms operators received instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to effect suspension of services of micro blogging platform Twitter. The carriers, acting under the aegis of Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said they conducted assessment of the request according to international best practices. The impact of twitter ban on telecom is that most of their customers who uses data will limit their usage as a result of the restriction on twitter platform. More so, their they stand a chance to loos customer engagement on that website.Owing to the fact every business has an interest in making profit. But a drop in the rate at which customer s patronizes a product simply means the decrease in the revenue and profitability of the business. Hence the current twitter ban will affect the profit margin of telecommunication companies.
Businesses whose operation were basically online via e-commerce found it difficult to connect with their online customers due to the ban, The ban reduced the data usage of internet users hence the profit margin of telecommunications companies were affected, SMEs who do use twitter to run adverts on their brand were restrained by the ban hence might encounter loss of brand recognition. The ban affected the civic societies by shrinking the civic space and shutting the ordinary people from airing their grievances and bringing to public attention, crisis and injustice that has been done to them as well as to seek both institutional and public support, For Digital Marketting and Lancers who run social adverts for other businesses, the ban has retrained them from providing such services on twitter.
Aside the discussed impact of twitter ban on businesses such as businesses, there are other effect to be reckoned within the auspices of humanitarian services and social support such as justice, emergency support systems and the civic space. Twitter has also become the foremost social media resource centre where disease control agencies of different countries, including Nigeria, share local and international updates with their citizens.
During the #EndSARS protests against police brutality in October 2020 when peaceful protesters were detained by state forces, the Nigerian youth, through Twitter, created hotlines affected persons could reach in order to secure their release or that of their colleagues (premium times 2021).The bird application also drew the attention of the international communities to the plight of young Nigerians who had suffered at the hands of law enforcement. Thus the ban will distort access to an avenue of online community where people air their grievances.
A lawyer and human rights crusader, Inibehe Effiong (premium times 2021), describes Twitter and other social media platforms as “veritable tools for civic engagement”. “It gives the ordinary people a voice to air their grievances and bring to public attention, crisis and injustice that has been done to them and seek both institutional and public support,” the activist says, noting that so many citizens have got redress for injustice done to them “on account of the polarization of such cases on Twitter.” Mr Effiong, who has sued the federal government over the ban, says the ban on micro-blogging site limits “access to (justice)” and in a way, “shrinks the civic space.” “People can no longer organize effectively as they are supposed to,” he said (premium times 2021).
The Executive Director TechHer Nigeria, Chioma Agwuegbo, says Twitter has been instrumental in helping to serve justice to survivors of domestic crisis, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). “Twitter was instrumental in sensitizing the public on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) issues, calling the civic societies, NGOs, government and relevant stakeholders to action, seeking justice and social support for survivors, and holding perpetrators accountable.“Indeed, it was a powerful tool for online activism and advocacy for issues of sexual and gender-based violence,” she says (premium times 2021).
In the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown, governors of Nigeria’s 36 states unanimously declared a state of emergency on SGBV after a series of violence perpetrated against women sparked nationwide protests by activists online and at rallies. Reports of rape, abuse, and killing of women and girls flooded the social media space. Notable among the cases were the rape and murder of Vera Uwa Omozuwa and Barakat Bello and the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Jigawa State. These public outcries using hashtags such as #JusticeForUwa, and #JusticeForBarakat helped to sustain the call for justice which led to the declaration of the state of emergency. Several other female survivors of SGBV were encouraged and told their own stories. Ms Agwuegbo said with the ban on Twitter in Nigeria, the progress achieved in using the Twitter platform to get social support and justice may suffer a setback (premium times 2021). She adds that the ban on Twitter will not only affect access to justice but also other interventions ranging from emotional, financial, and others, people get from the platform. One of such interventions was seen in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic when the world and especially developing economies were in short supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The Nigerian government, through Twitter, solicited support from the international communities, which they got (premium times 2021).
A gender inclusion expert, Busola A.(2021), fears that the ban of Twitter may have a negative effect on access to justice. Responses companies and people generate on Twitter, compared to other social media platforms, are instant and prompt. You could see that a lot of professionals, civil society, manufacturing companies, retailers, and consumers all have a presence on Twitter to enable them reach out to their customers far and near,” she said. With this ban, manufacturing companies can no longer post adverts on the platform and the citizens also has no access to the platform. This has gone a long way of reducing the volume of sales these companies make as well as reduce their profit margin.
2.2 THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
The theoretical framework guiding the study is Social Action theory by Max Weber.
Social Action Theory
The Social Action Theory was developed by the German sociologist Max Weber, who with this theory pursued to highlight the importance of human behaviour as it relates to cause and effect in the social sphere. According to Max Weber, human beings adapt their actions according to social contexts and how these actions affect the behaviour of others.
For Max Weber, social action explains the behaviours, effects and consequences of human behaviour and how this behaviour can influence the behaviour of other people and become a social movement, where it is no longer an isolated behaviour, but part of a whole (society). Weber relied on existing research to argue that sociology is fundamental to scientific research. According to Max Weber, social action can trigger means and ends for social actors who want to achieve something specific. For example, a company organizes activities for each individual and assigns a different role to each employee, but each action performed by employees is connected to each other in order to keep the organization going.
The relevance of this theory to this study depicts that the rules that the government spells out, determine the social action to be organized. This can affect how the public react and relate in communication, their businesses and in organization. Social media such as twitter enables individuals to interact with each other, share information, even aid businesses to enlighten the public about products and services they offer in order to acquire customers in the competitive market, gain more patronage, increase profitability and achieve their long term goal.