Government shuts down X over pornography concerns

Tanzania has decided to block access to social media platform X because it allows pornographic content to be shared, the Information Minister has said, according to BBC News. The content was contrary to the East African state's ‘laws, culture, customs, and traditions’, Jerry Silaa told a local TV station. But a Tanzanian rights group posted on X that Silaa's comments reflected a ‘troubling pattern of digital repression’ ahead of October's Presidential and parliamentary elections. Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan's government has been accused of becoming increasingly repressive as it campaigns to remain in office. In its post, the Legal and Human Rights Centre said that X, then known as Twitter, faced a similar shutdown in the run-up to the 2020 election, and the ‘recurrence’ of restrictions raised ‘serious concerns about the openness of digital space’ in Tanzania. In his interview, Silaa linked the ban to X's announcement last year that it would no longer block ‘consensually produced and distributed’ adult content. On 20 May, internet watchdog Netblocks reported that X was unavailable in Tanzania following reports that the official police account had been hacked, showing pornographic material and falsely claiming that the President had died. It is unclear who carried out the hacking, but it coincided with a government crackdown on Kenyan and Ugandan human rights campaigners who had gone to Tanzania to show solidarity with main opposition leader Tundu Lissu who has been detained on a charge of treason.

Full BBC News report