TikTok users in four northern Nigerian states have reportedly struggled to watch videos, upload content, and use the app since mid-September.
A digital-rights group has sued the company over the disruption, but its case hinges on an unresolved issue: whether TikTok restricted access or the problem originated elsewhere.
The Foundation for Digital Justice and Sustainable Development filed the fundamental-rights action at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, on October 5, asking the court to determine whether the alleged regional restriction violates users’ rights to freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination.
Access disruptions began around September 11, 2026, in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto states. By September 14, the platform was heavily restricted or completely inaccessible in those states.
The case will test whether Nigerian courts can hold a global technology company accountable for allegedly restricting access to its platform—but first, the foundation must establish that TikTok caused the disruption.
Unlike recent cases involving Meta and Truecaller, which centred on personal data, this suit concerns access to a major channel for communication and commerce, and whether a platform-imposed regional restriction would violate users’ rights.
The foundation wants the court to find that the alleged regional restriction violates users’ rights to freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination. Before those claims can be resolved, however, the case must establish what caused the disruption and whether TikTok was responsible.
TikTok did not respond to requests for comment and has not publicly explained the reported access problems.
According to the lawsuit seen by TechCabal, videos freeze or fail to load on regular mobile data connections, uploads stall, and other functions do not work.
The foundation says affected users can restore access through virtual private networks, or VPNs. It argues that its investigation and interviews with users point to a regional restriction rather than a local technical glitch.
But reports of disrupted access—and the ability to reconnect through a VPN—do not, by themselves, establish that TikTok deliberately blocked users in those states.
The foundation’s case attributes the disruption to TikTok, while the possibility of a network, routing, or infrastructure problem remains unresolved. The company has not offered an explanation that would clarify the source of the failure.
“TikTok owes its users the duty to offer an explanation concerning the restriction and the discrimination,” Festus Ogun, counsel representing the foundation, told TechCabal. “We maintain that the continuous exclusion and restriction is a violation of digital rights.”
TikTok’s Terms of Service reserve the right to suspend or restrict all or part of its platform for “business and operational reasons,” without prior notice. However, the clause does not specify criteria for restricting access across an entire region. It also does not establish that TikTok exercised that power in northern Nigeria.
The contractual provision and the foundation’s allegations therefore raise separate issues: whether TikTok imposed a restriction and, if it did, whether that restriction was lawful.
The foundation argues that the disruption cannot be treated as ordinary content moderation. Ogun distinguishes enforcement against particular posts or accounts from preventing users across a region from accessing the application.
“This has nothing to do with content moderation,” he said. “Content moderation relates more to the ability to post or make comments and not the ability to access or use the application entirely.”
TikTok’s published enforcement policies describe content removals, temporary feature restrictions, and account bans for repeated or severe violations. They also provide notification and appeal procedures for affected users. Those account-level processes do not explain the reported disruption across the four states.
The foundation says the consequences extend beyond an inability to upload videos. Its suit describes posting, viewing, replying, liking, and reposting as forms of “expressive conduct” that affected users are being denied.
For creators and small businesses that use TikTok to reach audiences or customers, the disruption may also affect income. But the lawsuit’s central claim concerns access to a platform used for communication, public debate and commerce.
The suit relies on Sections 39, 42, 45 and 46 of Nigeria’s Constitution, alongside Articles 2 and 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The foundation invokes protections for expression and against discrimination to challenge the alleged exclusion of users in particular states.
It argues that TikTok should explain why users in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto face access problems while users elsewhere in Nigeria can continue using the platform.
“What is good for the goose is also good for the gander,” Ogun said. “They should come to court to explain why some Northern States are excluded while the rest of Nigerian states are not subjected to the same restrictive measure.”
The foundation argues that selective restrictions without an objective and lawful justification could amount to unequal treatment based on place of origin, ethnicity, religion or another constitutionally protected ground. That remains an allegation for the court to assess, rather than an established explanation for the disruption.
The group is asking the court to declare the alleged geoblocking wrongful, unconstitutional and arbitrary. It also seeks a public apology in three newspapers with nationwide circulation within seven days of judgment.
If the foundation establishes TikTok’s responsibility, the case would raise a further question: how constitutional protections for expression apply to a private platform that controls access to a widely used digital space.
Ogun rejects the suggestion that those protections apply only to government conduct.
“The section protects freedom of expression from the whims and caprices of big techs, private persons and authorities,” he said.
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