Gabon’s national media regulatory body, the High Communication Authority (HAC), formally announced the full reversal of an eight-month-long nationwide social media restriction in a televised public statement on Saturday, marking a notable policy shift that follows widespread public pushback against the original ban when it was first enforced earlier this year.
The original ban was implemented on February 17, with the HAC justifying the measure by claiming unregulated online content was inciting communal tensions and widening societal rifts across the Central African nation of roughly 2.5 million residents. The sudden restriction caught the public largely off guard, as platforms including Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram had become deeply embedded in daily life for Gabon’s youth population, who relied on the services for both recreational use and small-scale commercial operations to generate household income. In response to the block, a large share of internet users turned to virtual private network (VPN) tools to circumvent the restrictions and maintain access to their usual social media channels.
The ban was first imposed during a period of heightened domestic unrest, falling less than 12 months after President Brice Oligui Nguema secured electoral victory. At the time, public sector workers including teachers and civil servants had organized widespread labor strikes to protest stagnant wages and inadequate working conditions, prompting concerns from opposition groups who characterized the social media suspension as a blatant overreach of state authority and an abuse of executive power.
Nguema won last year’s national elections with over 90% of the popular vote, two years after a military coup ousted the Bongo family, which had held uninterrupted control of Gabon’s government for more than 50 years. When he initially took power, Nguema publicly committed to sweeping institutional reforms for the oil and timber-rich coastal state, where previous administrations had frequently deployed full digital blackouts as a tactic to suppress the spread of unvetted information. The BBC has since reached out to the HAC to request further official comment on the timeline of the policy reversal and any new regulatory frameworks that may be applied to social media platforms moving forward.
Gabon says access to social media restored after eight-month ban
