Twitter’s Jack Dorsey urges Bitcoin donations to fight police brutality in Nigeria

The CEO of Twitter and Square, Jack Dorsey, has urged his followers to donate Bitcoin to the #endSARS cause, which aims to end police brutality in Nigeria.

Donate via #Bitcoin to help #EndSARS https://t.co/kf305SFXze

— jack (@jack) October 14, 2020

The crypto donation site he linked to is run by a group of Nigerian feminists fighting against the police’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) through protests, fundraising, and social media.

A series of demonstrations began in Nigeria on October 4 with thousands taking to the streets to protest against police brutality in Nigeria and call for the disbanding of SARS, with the #endSARS hashtag trending.

Various crypto startups like BuyCoins and Busha have also donated to the cause.

Ray Youssef, CEO of Peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace Paxful, which is popular across Africa, also embraced the #endSARS hashtag, accusing police of unfairly targeting young people for using cryptocurrency. He said the situation was a “real crisis of human rights happening now!”

This is a real crisis of human rights happening now! Police are targeting young entrepreneurs for using crypto currency. Nigerians brilliantly adopted crypto early and used it legitimately to rise out of poverty and restore honor to Nigeria and this is their reward ? #EndSARS https://t.co/Tuhn83x5pA

— Ray Youssef (@raypaxful) October 11, 2020

Jack Dorsey has been a longstanding Bitcoin supporter. In the past, he has said Bitcoin is “probably the best” native currency of the internet due it being “consensus-driven” and “built by everyone.”

Dorsey’s payments company Square Inc, has set up a new open source non-profit organization to hold crypto patents. In the past week Square joined MicroStrategy as a major publicly listed company with Bitcoin on its books, after purchasing $50 million worth of BTC. The news made headlines including in mainstream newspapers around the world like The Scotsman, which said the move had “caused ripples throughout the whole of corporate America.”