{"id":30443,"date":"2026-02-18T05:44:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T10:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=30443"},"modified":"2026-02-18T05:44:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T10:44:37","slug":"social-media-suspended-in-gabon-for-spreading-of-false-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2026\/02\/18\/social-media-suspended-in-gabon-for-spreading-of-false-information\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media suspended in Gabon for ‘spreading of false information’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gabon’s media regulator has announced the suspension of social media platforms “until further notice”, saying online content has fuelled conflict and deepened divisions in the country.<\/b><\/p>\n

In a televised statement on Tuesday evening, the High Authority for Communication (HAC) cited the “spread of false information”, “cyberbullying” and the “unauthorised disclosure of personal data” as reasons for the decision.<\/p>\n

Its spokesperson Jean-Claude Mendome did not specify which platforms would be affected, but WhatsApp, Facebook and TikTok are popular in the country.<\/p>\n

Gabon is led by General Brice Oligui Nguema, who won presidential elections last year after leading a military coup in 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The 50-year-old president is facing growing social unrest, with teachers and other civil servants staging strikes over pay and working conditions.<\/p>\n

Social media platforms were still accessible on Wednesday morning, but a switch-off is expected soon.<\/p>\n

Mendome’s announcement has come as a shock to the central African nation of about 2.5 million people, where social media is particular popular with younger people who use it for business as well as pleasure.<\/p>\n

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a restaurant owner in the capital, Libreville, told the BBC the suspension would greatly affect his business, since he uses social media for promotion.<\/p>\n

“Almost 40% of my customers decided to order or come to the restaurant after seeing our advertising on social media\u2026 I won’t be able to catch new customers, because clients are attracted by what they are seeing, reviews from friends, pictures,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are entering a phase where we don’t even know if we are moving forward with global development or if we are sliding backward into total underdevelopment.”<\/p>\n

However, a taxi driver seemed unbothered about the move, telling the BBC: “There’s no smoke without fire.<\/p>\n

“For the authorities to take such a decision, something must have certainly prompted it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Nguema won last year’s poll with more than 90% of the vote<\/a>, two years after his coup ended more than five decades of rule by the Bongo family.<\/p>\n

At the time he pledged to reform Gabon, a small, oil- and timber-rich country, where digital blackouts were used by the previous governments to control information.<\/p>\n

For the first time, foreign and independent media were allowed to film the ballot count during the election.<\/p>\n

The media regulator spokesman said the suspension was prompted by the recurring dissemination on social networks and digital platforms of ” inappropriate, defamatory, hateful, and insulting content that undermines human dignity, social cohesion, the stability of the republic’s institutions, and national security”.<\/p>\n

Such actions, he said, were likely to “generate social conflict” and “seriously jeopardise national unity, democratic progress, and achievements”.<\/p>\n

But “freedom of expression, including freedom of comment and criticism,” remained “a fundamental right enshrined in Gabon”, Mendome added.<\/p>\n

School teachers in Gabon began striking in December over pay and working conditions, with protests over similar grievances spreading to other public sectors, including health and education.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gabon’s media regulator has announced the suspension of social media platforms “until further notice”, saying online content has fuelled conflict and deepened divisions in the country. In a televised statement on Tuesday evening, the High […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[8699,12214,12215,1312,11913],"class_list":{"0":"post-30443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world","9":"tag-cyber-bullying","10":"tag-gabon","11":"tag-gabon-high-authority-for-communication","12":"tag-social-media","13":"tag-social-media-ban","14":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30445,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30443\/revisions\/30445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}