Even then, JamiiForums will have to monitor all 80,000 plus comments it receives daily, collect user information and delete any content the regulatory body finds inappropriate within twelve hours of notification. The site was initially forced to go offline last month for failing to register and obtain a license while its registration has since been approved, authorities insisted the forum remain offline until it had been issued a hard copy certificate marking government approval, a process that delayed the site’s operations for two weeks.

Often referred to as “the Swahili Wikileaks,” JamiiForums has fought the government in the past over protecting sources, but the stipulations of the new online content regulations further complicate that relationship. With a reported 600,000 unique views per day until its recent shutdown, whistleblowing site JamiiForums is one of the highest-profile sites in Tanzania to be affected by the online regulations. Failure to comply with the regulations - which also forbid online content that is “indecent,” “annoying,” or that “leads to public disorder” - will result in a five million Tanzanian shillings (2,202 US dollars) fine, a jail term of not less than a year or both. Cyber cafes must install surveillance cameras, and all owners of electronic mobile devices, including phones, have to protect them with a password. They must store contributors’ details for 12 months and have means to identify their sources and disclose financial sponsors.

Officially dubbed the Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations, 2018, the statute, which the Tanzanian government is counting among its efforts to curb hate speech and fake news, requires online content creators - traditional media websites, online TV and radio channels, but also individual bloggers and podcasters - to pay roughly two million Tanzanian shillings (930 US dollars) in registration and licensing fees. In May, Tanzanian bloggers lost an appeal that had temporarily suspended a new set of regulations granting the country’s Communication Regulatory Authority discretionary powers to censor online content.

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