Tanzanians were blocked from social media platform X on Wednesday after a police account was hacked and used to falsely announce the president’s death, internet watchdog NetBlocks said.
The social media shutdown comes amid the disappearance of activists Boniface Mwangi of Kenya and Agather Atuhaire of Uganda following their arrest by Tanzanian police earlier this week.
They were in the country to attend the trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu who is accused of treason ahead of elections in October.
On Wednesday, Tanzanians were unable to access X unless using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), an AFP correspondent said.
“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,” NetBlocks said in a statement late Tuesday.
Tanzania’s Minister of Information, Communications and Technology Jerry William Silaa confirmed the hack in parliament, adding that the YouTube account of the country’s tax authority was also infiltrated.
“The reason these accounts were compromised is that their security protocols were not sufficiently robust. These accounts have since been restored,” Silaa said.
Police said they were hunting “the criminals who created and distributed the information” and warned the public against sharing the false messages.
