DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania — Meta has disclosed that Tanzanian authorities demanded restrictions on several Instagram accounts during the October 2025 election period, citing alleged violations of national law and warning that failure to comply could lead to Meta platforms being blocked in the country.
According to a case study published on Meta’s Content Restrictions portal, the Tanzanian Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) requested that the company limit access to three Instagram accounts.
Regulators claimed the accounts breached multiple laws, including the Constitution of Tanzania (1977), the Cybercrimes Act (2015), the Online Content Regulations (2020), the Penal Code, the Media Services Act (2016), the National Security Act, the Law of the Child Act, and the Personal Data Protection Act (2022).
The flagged posts reportedly contained calls for peaceful protests and criticised government actions during the tense election period.
Meta noted that the Tanzanian regulator warned that non-compliance could result in a nationwide shutdown of Meta’s platforms, a move that would affect Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — all widely used across the country.
In its published summary, Meta confirmed that it removed two items for violating its Community Standards and temporarily restricted access to one item in Tanzania based on the regulatory demand. The company said it also notified the affected user.
The disclosure comes amid growing scrutiny of digital content regulation in East Africa, where several governments have tightened oversight of online speech, citing national security, misinformation, and election integrity concerns.
Civil society organisations have warned that such requests risk shrinking civic space, particularly during politically sensitive periods.
Meta has stated that it continues to evaluate government takedown requests against its human rights policies, but maintains that in some jurisdictions, non-compliance can lead to full platform blocking — a risk that often forces the company to limit visibility of content locally rather than face nationwide shutdowns.
