DAR ES SALAAM, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's communications watchdog on Saturday issued a two-week deadline for all bloggers to register their platforms under tough new online content rules.

The online content regulations, passed in March, made it compulsory for bloggers and owners of other online forums, to register their services and potentially pay up to 2.1 million Tanzanian shillings (about 924 U.S. dollars) for registration and license fees.

The state-owned Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) said in a statement that all online content providers are required to complete their application process before May 5.

TCRA opened the registration process for blogs, online television stations, online radio and other online forums on Saturday.

TCRA said applicants were required to provide documents, including details of shareholders, share capital, citizenship of owners, a tax clearance certificate and staff qualification and training programs.

"Bloggers convicted of failure to comply with the new rules could face a fine of at least 5 million shillings or a prison sentence of a minimum of 12 months or both, according to the new regulations, said the statement.

President John Magufuli on Friday ordered authorities to take legal actions against anyone posting misleading anti-government statements on social media.

The number of internet users in Tanzania rose 16 percent in 2017 to 23 million, with the majority of those using their mobile phones to go online in the nation of around 52 million people. </s> Tanzania issued a warning over the weekend that all online media creators, including everything from online radio providers to bloggers, have just two weeks to register with the government. Registration and license fees add up to about $920, roughly what the average Tanzanian earns in an entire year.



The new law allows for punishments of up to a year in prison and at least 5 million shillings—the equivalent of $2,180. The Tanzanian government is largely cracking down on speech critical of President John Magufuli, but censors have also started targeting content considered sexually obscene or hate speech.

Popular musician Nassib Abdul, who goes by the name Diamond Platnumz, was arrested briefly last week for posting a video on Instagram of him kissing a woman. The video, which was sent to the 28-year-old’s 4.4 million followers was deemed “obscene.” Another musician, known as Nandy, was also arrested for posting “obscene” content to Whatsapp. Both were released on bail.

“I would like to urge the youth to stop using the internet to post obscene content. The government will continue to safeguard the country’s culture for present and future generations,” Harrison Mwakyembe, Tanzania’s minister of information, said after the arrests.

The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority announced on Saturday that all online forums, bloggers, internet radio stations, and video creators must register with the government by May 5th. Internet cafes are also being forced to install surveillance cameras.

About 23 million of Tanzania’s 52 million citizens have access to the internet, but it’s not clear whether the law requires individuals like Diamond Platnumz to register before posting photos and video third party apps to Instagram. The law seems designed to simply allow prosecution of anyone who criticizes the government or posts sexually suggestive content. Homosexuality is illegal in Tanzania and gay people can be punished with up to 30 years in prison for having sex.

As the Financial Times notes, President Magufuli is nicknamed The Bulldozer for his confrontational style. Elected ostensibly as a populist in 2015, Magufuli has cracked down on political speech he doesn’t like and has pushed socially conservative issues to the top of the national agenda. One issue that has grabbed international attention from human rights organizations is his ban on allowing pregnant teenagers from attending school.

Tanzania is increasingly becoming an authoritarian state as journalists are regularly threatened and politicians who oppose Magufuli have been found murdered. One opposition figure, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo, was murdered by machetes in his home this past February. Another leading political opposition figure was killed by gunmen in his home in September of 2017. Both were considered to be political assassinations.

But despite the risk of death, Tanzania’s independent media producers and human rights organizations have vowed to fight the new regulations on speech.

“According to our constitution, people have a right to collect and share information from any sources,” Onesmo Olengurumwa, a leader of the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, told the Financial Times. “If I and a group of like-minded people want to share information online, why should we have to pay for that?” </s> NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a new law on Wednesday that outlaws the abuse of people on social media but which critics say could be exploited to repress civil liberties.

Proponents of the law, including the legislators who pushed it through parliament, say the proliferation of social media has given rise to new crimes including online scams, which were not covered by previous laws.

New York-based media rights watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) warned last week however that the bill could criminalize free speech, “with journalists and bloggers likely to be among the first victims if it is signed into law”.

The law lays the ground for investigation and prosecution of computer and cybercrimes including cyber-harassment and “publication of false information”, a statement from the presidency said.

Violations to be penalized under the law include cyber-espionage, false publications, child pornography, computer-borne forgery, cyber-stalking and cyber-bullying among others, the statement said, without spelling out the penalties.

Offenders convicted for sharing “false” or “fictitious” information and propagating hate speech will be liable to a fine of 5 million shillings ($49,776.01) or sentenced to two years in jail, or both.

Lawmakers passed the bill last month despite protests from media practitioners and rights activists that its provisions could be used to stifle press freedoms.

Kenya joins other countries in the region that have passed laws that activists say will curtail free expression.

Earlier this month, Tanzanian bloggers and rights activists won a temporary court injunction against a government order to register online platforms that raised concerns about a crackdown on free speech. [L8N1SB3CZ]

In April, Uganda, another East African country acting to regulate internet use, announced plans to slap a new tax on social media users. </s> CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt’s top administrative court ruled on Saturday that regulators must block the video file-sharing site YouTube for one month over a video that denigrates the Prophet Mohammad, a lawyer who filed the case told Reuters.

A lower administrative court had ordered that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology block YouTube, owned by Google, in 2013 over the video, but the case was appealed and its ruling stayed during the appeal process.

The ministry at the time said it would be impossible to enforce the ruling without also disrupting Google’s Internet search engine, incurring potentially huge costs and job losses in the Arab world’s most populous country.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology was not immediately available for comment. YouTube appeared to be working in Egypt on Saturday as of 1250 GMT.

The film “Innocence of Muslims”, a low-budget 13-minute video, was billed as a film trailer and made in California with private funding. It provoked a wave of anti-American unrest in Egypt and other Muslim countries when it appeared in 2012.

Mohamed Hamid Salem, a lawyer who filed the case in 2013, said the ruling also orders that all links that broadcast the film be blocked.

The ruling is considered final and cannot be appealed. </s> Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday signed into law a sweeping cyber-crimes act criminalising fake news and online bullying, with clauses that critics argue could stifle press freedom.

The bill imposes stiff fines and jail terms for hacking, computer fraud, forgery of data, cyber espionage, publishing child pornography or sending pornographic content via any electronic means.

However, bloggers and media rights activists have expressed alarm over a clause which criminalises the publication of “false, misleading or fictitious data.”

Punishment for this can be a fine of $50,000 (42,000 euro) or up to two years in prison, or both.

The Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ) last week urged Kenyatta not to sign the bill, arguing it would make it easy for authorities to gag journalists publishing information they dislike.

“Kenyan legislators have passed a wide-ranging bill that will criminalise free speech, with journalists and bloggers likely to be among the first victims if it is signed into law,” said CPJ’s Africa coordinator, Angela Quintal.

Additionally, anyone found guilty of publishing false information that “is calculated or results in panic, chaos, or violence” or that is “likely to discredit the reputation of a person” can be fined $50,000 or jailed for up to 10 years.

Article 19, a London-based freedom of expression watchdog, in an April analysis of the bill, said it contained important additions modelled after relevant international standards.

However it also “contains several broadly defined offences with harsh sentences that could dramatically chill freedom of expression online in Kenya.”

Rights activists have warned about an increasingly hostile and oppressive environment for journalists in Kenya, after a dramatic and bloody election season in 2017.

“While political tensions have eased, the ability of journalists to report and comment freely continue to be undermined by state officials,” Human Rights Watch said earlier this month.

In January government closed three television stations for a week after they tried to provide live coverage of opposition leader Raila Odinga staging a mock inauguration ceremony, a move criticised by Kenya’s foreign allies.

Then in March, eight prominent columnists working for Kenya’s biggest media group, the Nation Media Group, quit over increased meddling by government and a loss of media freedom at its outlets. </s> “We’re not paying any attention to such a declaration,” Mr. Lone said.

Earlier in the day, police officers and officials from the Communications Authority of Kenya descended on a broadcast transmission station in Limuru, about 18 miles outside Nairobi, the capital, and disconnected broadcasting equipment, according to Linus Kaikai, the chairman of the Kenya Editors Guild and the general manager of the television division at Nation Media Group, which owns NTV, one of the three channels disconnected.

Mr. Kaikai said that the authorities had disabled the equipment shortly before 9 a.m. “There was no explanation given,” he said.

Repeated calls to multiple officials at the Communications Authority were not returned.

The television blackout and the criminal designation seemed to add legitimacy to Mr. Odinga’s oath, which some observers had earlier dismissed as political theater.

“We’ve urged them to ignore it, to downplay it,” said one Western diplomat, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. “It has no legal or practical effect, so the best solution here would be to just ignore the entire thing. But they’re not doing that.”

Mr. Njoka, the Interior Ministry spokesman, described the oath as an assault on legitimate government. He also said the government had “good reasons” for interrupting television broadcasts of the gathering.

“The government had to do what it did because the lives of Kenyans are more important than what you call freedom of the press or what might turn out to be an inciting broadcast,” he said. </s> Ethiopia Ends Web Blackout, Raising Hopes of Reforms Under New PM (Reuters)

Ethiopia's new prime minister Abiy Ahmed attends a rally during his visit to Ambo on April 11, 2018. (Photo: Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Internet users in Ethiopia said on Monday the government appeared to have ended a three-month online blackout, raising hopes of a relaxation of restrictions after the arrival of a new prime minister who promised reforms.

Mobile and broadband internet services shut down in December in many regions outside the capital that were hit by unrest that threatened the ruling coalition’s tight hold on country.

Rights groups accused the government of trying to stop them spreading news online and organizing rallies calling for land rights and other freedoms – charges the government denied.

But internet users said they had noticed services returning following the April 2 inauguration of Abiy Ahmed.

The communications minister and the state-run telecoms monopoly did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

“We are very happy that it is back to normal,” said Hassan Bulcha, who runs an internet cafe in Shashemene, a town in the state of Oromiya which has seen some of the worst violence since protests erupted in 2015.

Groups that monitor internet usage in Ethiopia – one of the last countries on the continent with a state telecoms monopoly – gave the news a guarded welcome.

“Restoration of Ethiopia’s internet is a short-term win in a long-term struggle,” said Peter Micek of Access Now, a group that said it recorded two large-scale internet shutdowns in Ethiopia in 2017 and three in 2016.

The move was a step forward, but worries remained about the government’s wider commitment to freedoms, said CIPESA (Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa), a Uganda-based body that lists Britain among its funders.

“It would be too optimistic to expect that the new prime minister’s government will overnight dismantle all the layers of authoritarian control that have for decades been at the center of state power in Ethiopia,” said Juliet Nanfuka from CIPESA.

—

 Related:

 Ethiopia’s New Leader Makes Rare Outreach to Opposition (AP)

 In Ambo, Ethiopia PM Asks for Patience as He Seeks Change (AFP)

 Ethiopia’s new PM visits town that was center of anti-government protests (Reuters)

 Ethiopia PM gets huge welcome in Ambo (Africa News)

 US House Approves Ethiopia Resolution H. Res. 128 Amid Objection on Timing

 In Ethiopia Internet Returns, Maekelawi Closed, PM Visits Jijiga on Peace Mission

 Ethiopia Frees Re-Arrested Journalists (AP)

 A Charismatic Young Leader Tries to Calm Ethnic Tension in Ethiopia

 Herculean Task Awaits Abiy Ahmed on Human Rights in Ethiopia

 Ethiopia’s PM Abiy Delivers Hopeful Inauguration Speech (Video)

 Ethiopia Swears in New Prime Minister (AP)

 Ethiopia Seeks Calm With a New Leader (The New York Times)

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook. </s> A Saudi man uses his mobile to take pictures during Janadriyah Culture Festival on the outskirts of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia February 8, 2016. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will remove its ban on internet phone calls on Thursday, a government spokesman said, in a bid to stimulate online business as the kingdom looks to boost non-oil revenue.

All online voice and video call services such as Microsoft's Skype and Facebook's WhatsApp that satisfy regulatory requirements will become accessible at midnight (2100 GMT), Adel Abu Hameed, spokesman for the telecoms regulator CITC said on Twitter on Wednesday.

The lifting of the ban could pinch Saudi Arabia's three main telecoms operators - Saudi Telecom Co (STC), Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) and Zain Saudi - which earn substantial revenue from international phone and text calls made by the millions of expatriates living in the kingdom.

The policy reversal comes as part of the government's broad reform programme to diversify revenue sources as oil prices have hit the finances of the world's top exporter.

"Digital transformation is one of the key kick-starters for the Saudi economy, as it will incentivize the growth of internet-based businesses, especially in the media and entertainment industries," a separate statement from the information ministry said.

"Access to VoIP (voice over internet protocol) will reduce operational costs and spur digital entrepreneurship – that's why it is such an important step in the Kingdom's internet regulation," it said.

The kingdom and its Gulf Arab neighbours have been concerned by the use of secure internet communication - which experts say is harder to monitor - especially by activists and militants.

Gulf Arab states, except the island kingdom of Bahrain, were mostly spared the "Arab Spring" mass protests often organised over the Internet which roiled much of the region in 2011.

They avoided the civil wars which largely followed but face deadly bombing attacks by Islamic State and militancy by fringes of their Shi'ite Muslim populations they say is fuelled by Iran.

The authorities will continue to regulate the Internet in order to restrict content that violates the kingdom's laws such as extremist material, pornography and gambling sites, the information ministry added. </s> The company that supplies all services for RT America channel, including TV production and operations, in the US, has received a letter from the US Department of Justice, claiming that the company is obligated to register under FARA due to the work it does for RT.

Adopted in 1938 to counter pro-Nazi agitation on US soil, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, exists so that “the people of the United States are informed of the source of information (propaganda) and the identity of persons attempting to influence US public opinion, policy, and laws.”

There are 401 entities in the active FARA register and include tourist boards and lobbyists, but no media outlets, which have traditionally been exempt from the legislation.

Earlier this year, a Democratic Senator and two Congressmen from both parties introduced a bill called the Agents Registration Modernization and Enforcement Act, which would broaden the scope of FARA. They specifically named RT as a target of the law, which has not gone to a vote in either chamber.

RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has previously commented on attempts to slap RT with the ‘foreign agent’ label.

“I wonder how US media outlets, which have no problems while working in Moscow, and that are not required to register as foreign agents, will treat this initiative,” Simonyan said last week.
Tanzania's Communications Regulatory Authority issues a two week deadline for bloggers, Internet TV shows, and other online content creators and distributors to register with the government.