On May 20, 2025, several government and prominent institutional social media accounts in Tanzania were compromised. The breaches led to the posting of various unethical and disinformational as well as politically linked messages.
The incident began with the Tanzania Police Force’s official X account, which started posting pornographic images around 5:00 AM. Later, the account was used to livestream false information about the health of a Tanzanian president. As the day progressed, the attackers also compromised the police’s YouTube account, Usalama TV, where they continued spreading similar falsehoods.
This trend extended to several other social media handles. The Tanzania Investment Centre’s X account was affected, followed by the YouTube page of Simba Sports Club. The Tanzania Revenue Authority’s YouTube channel, known as TRA Online TV, was also compromised. In addition, the YouTube and X accounts of Airtel Tanzania, the YouTube channel of the ruling party CCM, and the University of Dar es Salaam’s YouTube page were all impacted.
Surprisingly, the official YouTube page of UN Tourism, the United Nations agency responsible for promoting responsible, sustainable, and universally accessible tourism, also published similar messages. As of 6:00 AM on May 21, 2025 (Tanzania time), these messages were still visible on UN Tourism page, according to a review by The Chanzo.
The Tanzania Police Force issued a statement confirming that investigations to identify the criminals who were involved in the incidents and calling for citizens not to engage with the messages.
“We urge citizens to ignore these reports and refrain from sharing them. Strict action will be taken against those involved in creating and disseminating such content, as well as anyone who continues to spread it,” the statement from the police read.
Airtel Tanzania, the country’s third-largest telecommunications provider with 13.1 million subscribers, also released a statement confirming that its YouTube and X accounts had been hacked.
“Airtel Tanzania would like to inform the public that its social media accounts, specifically Twitter (X) and YouTube, have been hacked by unknown individuals who are spreading misleading information. These posts should be ignored,” the company announced via Instagram.
“Airtel has taken initial steps to shut down the affected accounts to prevent further dissemination of false information intended to mislead the public and cause panic,” the statement continued.
The Government Spokesperson also cautioned the public about the spread of disinformation online: “All citizens are cautioned that the Government has identified misleading information circulated on social media. This content intends to cause panic and instill fear among the public,” the statement said.
“Furthermore, it has been discovered that criminals are creating fake social media accounts with names resembling those of reputable institutions, and are using them to publish deceptive content,” it added.
As of now, the government has not provided a detailed explanation for the cause of these incidents. However, a common characteristic of the content is that it was live-streamed, rather than posted as standalone messages. On the evening of May 20, 2025, several users of X were reporting difficulties accessing X in Tanzania, with Netblocks reporting X has been unreachable on major internet providers in Tanzania.
