Senegal: the government suspends TikTok, pointing to a threat to “the stability of the country”

2023-08-02 14:48:54

After temporarily restricting the internet on cellphones, the Senegalese government is going after TikTok. The Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications and Digital Economy announced in a statement on Wednesday that TikTok “is suspended in Senegal until further notice”, reports Reuters.

“It has been found that the TikTok application is the social network favored by ill-intentioned people to disseminate hateful and subversive messages threatening the stability of the country”, justified Minister Moussa Bocar Thiam. This decision comes as the situation is particularly tense in the country of Teranga, after the detention of opponent Ousmane Sonko, presidential candidate of 2024, and the dissolution of his party, Pastef.

Spontaneous demonstrations broke out at the start of the week, pitting young supporters of the political opponent against the police. At least three people were killed and dozens injured. Tuesday evening, two people died in Dakar in an attack with an incendiary device against the bus in which they were. The Minister of the Interior described the tragedy as a “terrorist attack” without clearly establishing a link with the protests in reaction to the imprisonment of Ousmane Sonko.

“An attack on freedom of information and expression”

Senegalese authorities had suspended Internet access on phones on Monday for similar reasons. “Due to the dissemination of hateful and subversive messages in a context of threat of disturbing public order, the Internet of mobile data is temporarily suspended on certain time slots from Monday July 31”, indicated the Minister for Telecommunications and the Digital Economy.

Amnesty International has denounced on X (formerly Twitter) an “attack on freedom of information and expression” and called “to restore the Internet in its entirety”.

Ousmane Sonko, the fiercest opponent of President Macky Sall, was charged and placed under arrest warrant Monday for various crimes, including “call for insurrection”. While he is implicated in three legal proceedings, and sentenced to imprisonment in one, his participation in the presidential election, at the start of 2024, is strongly compromised. He announced on Sunday that he was going on a hunger strike.