Popular short-video platform TikTok has officially clarified that it did not restrict access to its network in northern parts of Nigeria.
​The clarification was issued on Monday, October 12, 2026, following weeks of mounting complaints from users in states across the region, including Kano, Kaduna, Kebbi, and Sokoto, who reported severe difficulties loading feeds, viewing videos, and publishing content on the application.
​Addressing the situation in an official statement released from Johannesburg, South Africa, Ms. Keagile Makgoba, TikTok’s Head of Communications for Sub-Saharan Africa, confirmed that the disruption did not originate from the social media giant.
​”We are aware of reports regarding restricted access to our platform in certain parts of Nigeria. We can confirm that this restriction was not implemented by TikTok. We are actively engaging with relevant stakeholders to resolve the situation and remain committed to ensuring access for our community,” Makgoba stated.
​The access issues first surfaced in late September 2026 when users in northern states noticed that while other mobile applications worked normally on local data connections, TikTok failed to function without the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
​Earlier on Monday morning during a press conference in Abuja, a coalition of 12 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) urged the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and major telecommunications operators to investigate the targeted network disruption.
​While TikTok did not explicitly disclose the identities of the stakeholders involved in its ongoing discussions, telecom operators and network service providers in affected regions are reportedly conducting technical diagnostics on network configuration, routing protocols, and traffic-management systems to pinpoint the root cause of the outage.
