Tanzanian authorities have moved to block public access to the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) following a sophisticated cyberattack that compromised the country’s official police X account. The breach led to the dissemination of a false announcement regarding the death of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, triggering widespread anger and concern among the nation’s leadership.
Netblocks, a global organization monitoring cybersecurity and digital governance, confirmed the disruption on Tuesday. “Live metrics show X (formerly Twitter) has become unreachable on major internet providers in #Tanzania; the incident comes as a compromised police account posts claims the president has died, angering the country’s leadership,” Netblocks reported.
The Tanzanian police swiftly issued a statement disassociating themselves from the fraudulent posts on their X account. “The Police Force would like to inform the public that there is false, misleading and unethical information being circulated on the Police Force’s social media platform (tanpol) with the aim of trying to convince the public that it was issued by the Police Force through its X network,” the statement read.
Authorities have vowed to relentlessly pursue the perpetrators behind the cyberattack. “While we continue to track down the criminals who prepared and disseminated the information so that they are arrested, we ask the public to ignore the information and avoid continuing to disseminate it if it reaches you,” the police urged.
This incident marks a serious breach of official communication channels and highlights the growing challenges nations face in combating misinformation and cyber threats on social media platforms. The immediate blocking of X underscores the government’s swift response to contain the spread of false information and manage public sentiment.
