Tanzanian authorities have blocked citizens’ access to the microblogging platform X after hackers compromised the social media handle of the country’s police.
Netblocks, a platform tracking cybersecurity and digital governance, confirmed on Tuesday that the government of the East African country blocked access to X after hackers compromised and deployed Tanzanian police X handle to falsely announce the death of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
“Confirmed: 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 said.
Tanzanian police in a statement on Tuesday dissociated themselves from the false information on its X account, vowing to go after its perpetrators.
“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 Tanzanian police stated.
The police added, “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.”
