Gabon Social Media Ban Ends After Eight Months of Suspension
The Gabon social media ban is over. The High Communication Authority (HAC) said access came back on Saturday, eight months after it switched the networks off on 17 February. The regulator had blamed online content for stoking conflict and division in society. The suspension drew widespread criticism from the start.
Facebook and TikTok, the country’s most-used platforms, went dark along with YouTube and Instagram, while WhatsApp worked on and off. Plenty of people got around the block with a VPN. Proton reported a 60,000 per cent jump in downloads of its VPN tool the day after the Gabon social media ban took effect.
The High Communication Authority says the pause was meant to give the government time to adapt its legal framework and regulate social media better. Coming back has a price, though. Users must now provide formal identification, which effectively ends online anonymity. The regulator also says it is working with Meta, TikTok and YouTube to improve content moderation.
The timing matters. President Brice Oligui Nguema was facing a wave of social unrest, less than a year after his election, when the shutdown began. The opposition called it an abuse of power, and every legal challenge failed. Former prime minister
Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, jailed since April over alleged abuse of trust and fraud dating back to 2008, was among its loudest critics. Activists point to the ban and his arrest as signs of a repressive climate under Brice Oligui Nguema, the general whose 2023 coup ended 55 years of Bongo family rule and raised hopes of democratic change. So the Gabon social media ban has ended, but the ID rule keeps part of its effect alive.
Watch how the identification rule is enforced and whether the platforms’ new moderation measures satisfy the High Communication Authority. The bigger question is whether the Gabon social media ban leaves a lasting chill on online speech, especially with Billie-By-Nze still in prison.
