For the second time in less than ten months, Tanzania has blocked access to X. The outage has been confirmed by the internet observatory organisation, NetBlocks. On its X handle, NetBlocks posted the following.
“Live metrics show X (formerly Twitter) has become unreachable on major internet providers in #Tanzania; the incident comes as a compromised police account posts claims the president has died, angering the country’s leadership.”
Early in the day, the X account associated with the Tanzania Police Force (TANPOL) was compromised. Yesterday, the president Samia Suluhu, ordered police to “protect” social media, claiming she is safeguarding the country.
The East African country is in a tense political state, with the main opposition leader in jail. Tundu Lissu, who was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack, has been charged with treason, and his Chadema party has been disqualified from this year’s presidential elections scheduled for October.
X blockage also comes at a time when the location of Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan attorney Agather Atuhaire remain unknown. The two were taken into custody by Tanzanian police yesterday and have yet to be released.
This evening, Kenyan journalist John Allan Namu confirmed that he had spoken to Mwangi’s wife. The activist’s wife stated that her husband’s expected deportation had not happened.
The country had already deported other Kenyan activists, including former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and former Justice minister, Martha Karua.
Coincidentally, Tanzania blocked access to X in August of last year after yet another arrest of Tundu Lissu. State authorities had arrested him with four other opposition officials.
TANPOL had stated the actions were due to members of the public organising protests online. They had also claimed that the 2024 protests were planned via Zoom.
