Tanzania bans Blogger!

I originally drafted this in May 2025 but could not post due to being in Tanzania 

The Tanzania government has never been a bastion of free speech, and in my time here I have seen the muzzling of journalism in several disturbing ways. This ratcheted up with President Magufuli who served from 2015 until his death in 2021. President Samia initially looked like she would expand press freedoms but it's become increasingly apparent that she is following the same path laid by President Magafuli. 

There are plenty of journalists out there who are committed to ensuring freedom of speech and rights for journalists and I would encourage you to check out their work. But in short, Tanzania does not have freedom of speech or freedom of press and combined with the dominance of media consumption in the local Swahili language, this leads the majority of people in Tanzania to be ignorant of world events. This was best demonstrated during COVID where people legitimately believed there was no COVID in Tanzania, yes, we along with Kazakhstan and North Korea were the only countries without it, people legitimately believed this. I recently surveyed our staff and the vast majority genuinely believed that Ukraine started the war with Russia. It is quite scary and sad to keep the population ignorant and oppressed. "Speaking up" is not a quality that citizens in Tanzania value and I do not blame them, there is absolutely no reason to risk your life or livelihood by standing up for freedom of speech. But this certainly affects the development of the country and its citizens.

The Tanzanian government has not clearly defined what qualifies as harmful content, nor outlined who makes that determination or how those decisions are reviewed. Yet it continues to expand its authority over online expression, deciding who gets to speak and what can be said.  

Under Magufuli, Tanzania saw a dramatic tightening of media regulation and political control. Key legislative milestones included the Cybercrimes Act (2015), Statistics Act (2015), and Access to Information Act (2015), all of which restricted freedom and oversight of the media. The Media Services Act (2016) gave authorities the power to shut down media organizations and required newspapers to apply for annual licenses.

The impact was immediate. By 2019, major newspapers, including Mwananchi, Mtanzania, and Raia, were banned from publication. The Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations (2020) further expanded control over online content. In July 2020, The East African, which had circulated for 20 years, was banned, officially over registration issues. Later that year, following Magufuli’s reelection, widespread public discontent led to internet and phone network shutdowns for 2–3 days.

Under Samia, this trajectory has continued and intensified. In October 2024, several newspapers (The Citizen, Mwananchi, and Mwanaspoti) had their online licenses suspended for 30 days over an animated clip highlighting abductions and disappearances. In May 2025, the government banned 80,000 websites, including platforms like Blogger.

While Tanzania has historically been nationalist and cautious about media freedom, tracing back to Nyerere’s era and post-union citizenship and information policies, the scale and immediacy of repression today is unprecedented. Previous decades featured slower, more incremental restrictions, and media criticism often survived in print or radio. Compared to the broader East African region, Tanzania’s current climate is more tightly controlled than Kenya, Uganda, or even Rwanda in certain areas of press freedom. The combination of legislative, administrative, and technological tools under Magufuli and Samia has fundamentally reshaped how Tanzanians access and understand information, leaving many unaware of both domestic and international events. 

From my experience, the combination of legislative restrictions and the dominance of Swahili-language media has made the population remarkably insular. Many Tanzanians consume almost exclusively local Swahili content and are often unaware of international events, something I witnessed repeatedly. The younger generation might be more exposed through TikTok, YouTube, and other social media platforms, but I worry that governmental restrictions will continue to move faster than digital freedom, limiting how much this exposure can truly change public awareness.