The social network X was blocked on Wednesday in Tanzania, said the Internet surveillance group Netblocks, the day after the piracy of a police account in which the president’s death had been falsely announced and where pornographic videos had been transmitted.
The closing of X is involved in a context of political repression by the Tanzania Executive, accused of the opposition and the Human Rights NGOs to return to the authoritarian practices of the previous President John Maguli (2015-2021).
On Monday, the human rights defender Kenyan Boniface Mwangi and the Uganda journalist Agather Atuhaire, who came to attend the appearance of the opposition head of Tundu Lissu, disappeared in Tanzania after President Samia Suluhu Hassan asked the local security forces to prohibit the country with “foreign activists” who try “businesses.”
False news
On Wednesday, the Tanzans could only access X using a virtual private network (VPN), an AFP correspondent said. “Real -time metrics show that X (previously Twitter) has become inaccessible for the main Internet suppliers in #Tanzania,” Netblocks announced in a press release on Tuesday night.
“The incident occurs while a police account published statements that the president has died, causing the management of the country’s administration,” this online surveillance group continued.
The Minister of Information, Communications and Technology of Tanzania, Jerry William Silaa, confirmed the piracy in Parliament, added that the YouTube account of the country’s tax authority had also infiltrated. The death of President Hassan had also been announced falsely there.
Police said they were looking for “criminals” who “created and distributed” misleading and contrary to ethics “, asking the Tanzans not to share them.
Source: BFM TV
