Gabon Suspends Social Media Access Amid Protests

Gabon suspended access to major social media platforms this week, citing security concerns amid escalating protests, a move critics called repressive and damaging to civil liberties, Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday.

What began in December as a teachers’ strike over pay and conditions has widened into unrest across other public services, including health, higher education and public broadcasting.

The country’s media regulator said online content had fueled conflict and deepened divisions in the country.

The media regulator’s spokesperson Jean-Claude Mendome cited the “spread of false information” and “cyberbullying” as well as the “unauthorized disclosure of personal data” as reasons for the decision.

He also denounced “inappropriate, defamatory, hateful, and insulting content” that he said undermined “human dignity, social cohesion, the stability of the Republic’s institutions, and national security.”

At the same time, Mendome insisted that “freedom of expression, including freedom of comment and criticism,” remained “a fundamental right enshrined in Gabon.”

Still, opposition leaders warned that the ban imposed “a climate of fear and repression” and called on citizens to mobilize.

Agence-France Presse journalists and connectivity watchdog NetBlocks reported that as of Wednesday, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp were no longer accessible.

Business owners warned the move would hurt commerce, while some citizens defended the decision, the BBC noted.

The suspension comes less than a year after President Brice Oligui Nguema was elected with more than 90 percent of the vote, following a 2023 military coup that ended more than five decades of rule by the Bongo family.

Oligui Nguema promised reforms, including improving living conditions in the oil- and timber-rich country.

However, he now faces growing social unrest.

The teachers’ strike is centered on a decade-old wage freeze that has left educators struggling with rising living costs. Authorities last month arrested two prominent figures from the teachers’ protest movement, though they were later released.

Oligui Nguema has since met representatives of health and higher education unions. Meanwhile, the communications minister promised to meet demands from strikers at public broadcaster Gabon Television after protests took some news programs off the air for three days.