Gabon Lifts Social Media Ban

Gabon restored access to social media on Saturday after an eight-month suspension that drew widespread criticism, its media regulator announced.

Users are now required to provide formal identification, a change the report says effectively ends online anonymity.

The High Communication Authority (HAC) cut access to social networks on 17 February, saying content posted online was fuelling conflict and division in society. The crackdown came as President Brice Oligui Nguema faced a wave of social unrest less than a year after his election. Facebook and TikTok, the country’s most-used platforms, were shut down along with YouTube and Instagram, while WhatsApp worked intermittently.

Some Gabonese people kept access through virtual private networks (VPNs), which hide a user’s IP address and encrypt traffic. The provider Proton reported a 60,000 per cent increase in downloads of its VPN tool the day after the ban took effect.

The HAC said the suspension was meant to give the government time to adapt its legal framework to regulate social media more effectively. It now says it is working with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and with TikTok and YouTube to improve content moderation on those platforms. The reporting does not say how the identification requirement will be enforced or which platforms it covers.

Gabon’s opposition condemned the ban as an abuse of power. It faced a string of legal challenges, all of which were rejected. Former prime minister Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, who has been in prison since April over alleged abuse of trust and fraud dating back to 2008, was among the measure’s most vocal critics. Activists have cited the ban and his arrest as evidence of a repressive climate under Nguema.

The president came to office through the 2023 coup, which ended 55 years of rule by the Bongo family and raised hopes of democratic change.