Pressure has been mounting on Meta after the company deactivated the social media account of influential U.S.-based Tanzanian activist Mange Kimambi on December 3, 2025. Meta later released a statement saying the account was banned for violating the platform’s recidivism policy.
The ban came as a case filed by the Tanzanian government against Kimambi was adjourned on Thursday to January 28, 2026. Registered under Economic Crime Case No. 000021172/2025 before Resident Magistrate Hassan Makube, the case was postponed because investigations were still pending.
State prosecutors allege that between March 1 and March 31, 2022, Kimambi was involved in laundering Tsh 138.5 million. They argue that she earned the revenue through unaccredited journalism and intimidation.The period cited corresponds to the early days of the Mange Kimambi App, a gossip application she operated from the U.S. The app became highly popular and, like its owner, very influential, attracting hundreds of thousands of paying users, mostly ordinary citizens, within its first months of launch. It became the first successful pay-to-read gossip and news app in Tanzania.
Mange announced in June 2025 that she was ceasing entertainment-related work to focus on activism, citing an urgent threat of democratic decline. She also stated that she had realized her focus on celebrity gossip had contributed to distracting Tanzanians from important national issues.
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Mange has been using her Instagram page as a platform for activism and is considered one of the driving forces behind the planned October 29 demonstration. She set the date and called for a peaceful protest, which was later amplified by other activists. Her accounts have also shared various leaks related to corruption and other public-interest matters.
“My social-media platforms were essential tools for communicating with supporters, organizing peaceful civic action, and documenting human-rights abuses in real time,” Mange wrote on her X page, addressing President Donald Trump following deactivation by Meta.
CNN journalist Larry Madowo reached out to Meta for clarification on the ban, and the company cited policy violations as the reason.
“While we believe freedom of expression is a fundamental right and that our platforms should be a place where users around the world can exercise this right, we have strict rules about what is and isn’t allowed on our platforms,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“These Instagram accounts were removed for violating our recidivism policy. We don’t allow people to create new accounts that are similar to those we’ve previously removed for violating our Community Standards,” the statement continued.
In a statement issued by Tanzania’s main opposition party, CHADEMA argued that Meta is enabling transnational repression and called on the company to uphold principles of human dignity and free expression. U.S. Senator and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch became the first American public figure to comment on the matter.
“I am also concerned by reports that U.S.-based tech companies are blocking social media access for individuals targeted by the Tanzanian government—including some in the United States,” Senator Risch wrote in an X post.
The Tanzanian government, through Attorney General Hamza Johari, has vowed to bring Kimambi before a Tanzanian court, stating that it is exploring a possible extradition arrangement with the United States.
“It is not acceptable for someone, a lady, to just be sitting outside the United Republic of Tanzania like that, and telling people to do this [protest], and they actually go and do it. Then, when it happened, she went around bragging, saying she would come again in a different way. We must arrest her,” Johari said on November 6, 2025, in his first statement after being sworn in as Attorney General.
“Let’s see if we have an extradition agreement with the United States, let’s just check, we’ll think about it, she cannot boast to us to that extent. I mean, she is admitting that she engineered this [protest], and that she will do even more, so how can we just let her go?” Johari asked, referring to the October 29 demonstration, which saw a heavy security crackdown resulting in multiple deaths.
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Many observers believe the economic crime case against Kimambi is part of early efforts by the Tanzanian government to establish grounds for her possible extradition.
Kimambi, who first reported news of the charges on December 2, 2025, dismissed them but vowed that even if she is forcibly returned to Tanzania, she will continue fighting. She equated herself to opposition figure Tundu Lissu, who has been remanded since April 2025 on treason charges—”I’am female Tundu Lissu,” Mange said, highlighting Lissu’s hardline stance of refusing compromise.
In an Instagram post in early November 2025, Mange also claimed that U.S. authorities had informed her of a threat against her life. Since the restoration of internet access in Tanzania on November 3, 2025, she has been sharing graphic images of civilians killed following the October 29 protest.
The videos, too graphic for most platforms, have remained on her X account, where she now posts almost two new clips a day, a decrease from the early weeks of November when she was posting at least ten daily. With public trust in mainstream media declining, many citizens continue to send their reports and evidence to pages like Mange’s.
