Gabon says entry to social media restored after eight-month ban

Gabon says it has lifted a ban on social media imposed eight months in the past – a transfer that triggered widespread criticism on the time.

The High Communication Authority (HAC) introduced the U-turn on Saturday in a televised assertion. The BBC has approached the nation’s media regulator for remark.

The ban had been launched on 17 February, with the HAC saying that on-line content material was fuelling confrontation and deepening divisions within the nation.

The transfer got here as a shock to the central African nation of about 2.5 million individuals, the place social media platforms corresponding to Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram have been significantly standard with youthful individuals who use it for corporate affairs in addition to pleasure.

Many turned to VPNs as a way to proceed accessing social media websites following the ban.

The ban had been imposed at a time when the Gabonese President Brice Oligui Nguema was dealing with a wave of social unrest lower than a yr after his election.

Teachers and civil servants had staged strikes over what they stated have been low pay and poor working situations.

The opposition stated the suspension was an abuse of energy.

Nguema received final yr’s elections with greater than 90% of the vote, two years after his coup had ended greater than 5 a long time of rule by the Bongo household.

At the time he pledged to reform Gabon, a small, oil- and timber-rich nation, the place digital blackouts have been utilized by the earlier governments to regulate data.