NAIROBI, Kenya – Tanzania pulled the plug on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday night, hours after the official police account was hacked and used to falsely claim President Samia Suluhu had died—sending shockwaves through the East African nation and igniting global concern over digital freedoms and political suppression.
According to NetBlocks, a respected internet watchdog, the microblogging platform became inaccessible on major Tanzanian networks including Halotel, Airtel, Vodacom, Habari Node, and Liquid Telecom.
“Live metrics show X has become unreachable on major internet providers in Tanzania,” the London-based group wrote in a Mastodon update shortly after 9 p.m. EAT.
The disruption appeared timed, coming just as the hacked account of the Tanzania Police Force (@tanpol) launched a live stream and spread false news of President Suluhu’s death.
By Tuesday afternoon, authorities had regained control of the account, which boasts more than 470,000 followers, and announced an investigation to find the perpetrators. But the damage was done. The fake news not only rattled citizens—it clearly embarrassed the state.
From Twitter blackout to activist crackdown
The hacking episode didn’t happen in isolation. It followed a tense 48 hours in Tanzania, where the government has been under intense scrutiny for arresting and deporting prominent East African lawyers, journalists, and civil society figures who arrived to observe opposition leader Tundu Lissu’s treason trial
These arrests weren’t the first. Over the weekend, Tanzanian authorities detained and expelled former Kenyan Justice Minister Martha Karua, ex-Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, Law Society of Kenya official Gloria Kimani, and activists Lynn Ngugi, Hanifa Adan, and Hussein Khalid. All were stopped at Julius Nyerere International Airport before they could even attend Lissu’s court hearing.
The events have fueled fears of rising authoritarianism under President Suluhu, whose government seems increasingly intolerant of foreign scrutiny—especially when it involves opposition politics.
President Suluhu doubles down on sovereignty talk
On Monday, as headlines about the arrests dominated East African media, President Suluhu addressed the growing controversy during a televised speech launching Tanzania’s new foreign policy. Her message was unambiguous: stay out of our business
“We have started to observe a trend in which activists from within our region are attempting to intrude and interfere in our affairs,” she said. The comment was clearly directed at her Kenyan and Ugandan critics—and came across as both a warning and a defense of recent state actions.
This marks a shift from Suluhu’s early image as a reformer and peacemaker in the region. And for a government that once championed digital openness and pan-Africanism, the recent censorship of X and clampdown on regional observers tells a very different story.
