Dar es Salaam – An opposition party member in Tanzania, Lucy Shayo, has been charged with the unlawful use of a SIM card and providing online content without a licence, after she was arrested for a social media post critical of the ruling party.
Her case has drawn attention to the country’s increasingly stringent online content laws, which rights groups argue are being used to stifle political opposition and free speech in the run-up to the general election on October 29, 2025.
Ms Shayo, a member of the opposition CHADEMA party, was arrested on September 10, 2025, and held for seven days before being formally charged. Her arrest followed a post on her Instagram account on September 6, 2025, which alleged that the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party was using military vehicles to transport people to its campaign rallies.
However, when she was brought before the Resident Magistrate’s Court in Morogoro, the initial accusation of spreading false information was replaced with two different charges: the unlawful use of a SIM card registered in another person’s name, and providing online content services without a licence from the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA).
These charges fall under the Electronic and Postal Communications regulations. Ms Shayo, who is also known by her online moniker ‘Lucy Shayo wa Tundu Lissu,’ is currently out on bail.
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The use of the online content regulations in Ms Shayo’s case is not an isolated incident. In the lead-up to the 2025 general election, there has been a notable increase in the use of these laws to target what many consider to be dissenting voices.
In May 2025, the TCRA removed over 80,000 online platforms in what was described as a major digital crackdown. The same month, access to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) was blocked in the country.
More recently, in September 2025, the popular online forum JamiiForums had its licence suspended for 90 days by the regulator.
These actions have been accompanied by a broader clampdown on the political opposition. CHADEMA and ACT Wazalendo, the country’s two major opposition parties, have already been sidelined from the upcoming presidential election by the national electoral commission.
CHADEMA leader, Tundu Lissu, was also arrested in April 2025 and is now facing treason charges. Dozens of party members have been arrested in recent weeks for holding what the authorities have termed “illegal assemblies.”
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Tanzania’s online content regulations, first introduced in 2020 and amended in January 2025, require online content providers to obtain licences from the TCRA and establish systems to identify the sources of content posted on their platforms.
The regulations grant the TCRA broad powers to monitor, regulate, and sanction online content deemed to violate Tanzanian law.
Critics argue that these regulations are overly broad and give the government excessive control over digital communications. They point to the vague language used in the law, which prohibits content that is “misleading,” “insulting,” or “contrary to public interest” without providing clear definitions of these terms.
Opposition parties and civil society groups argue that the government is using the laws to suppress political dissent and limit criticism of the ruling party ahead of the election, while authorities justify their actions in the name of combating “cybercrime” as well as “moral degradation.”
