Authorities freezes social media accounts for LGBT supporters
TANZANIA authorities are taking unprecedented steps to crack down people promoting or involved in supporting same-sex marriages in an attempt to uphold national values and culture, the National Assembly heard on Monday.
Minister of Information, Communication and Information Technology, Nape Nnauye told the National Assembly that the government had shut down over 3,360 social media accounts and websites which were involved in promoting homosexuality or gayism.
According to Nape, the figure includes 12 twitter accounts, 198 Instagram accounts, 361 Facebook accounts, 334 websites and 2,456 gay groups.
“We have managed to block adverts and programs promoting homosexuality in mainstream media, unfortunately we are experiencing challenges with the online media,” he said. “This also needs the general public’s intervention especially at family level.”
Special Seats Member of Parliament (MP) Anatropia Theones (Chadema) had challenged the government in the Parliament to take immediate actions over people promoting same-sex marriage in public and through media channels.
According to the MP the supporters of LGBT ware left free despite the state enacting punitive measures. She suggested that the state amend the existing legislations to ensure those who engage, (those) with symptoms and those thinking to promote homosexuality should be dealt with in accordance with the laws.
Deputy Minister of Constitution and Legal Affairs, Pauline Gekul said the government continues to take actions including instituting long jail terms of more than 30 years.
