Gabon Requires ID Verification for Social Media and Suspends Platforms

Gabon’s media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February 2026, citing security concerns during anti-government protests. Within weeks, use of VPNs to bypass the restrictions surged. Gendarmerie in Libreville and other urban centres began stopping young men at road checkpoints to confiscate mobile phones with VPNs installed or detain the owners.

Social media had helped citizens convene and stay informed since December 2025, when workers in the education and health sectors protested over pay and the cost of living crisis. The Gabonese government cited misinformation, disinformation, pornographic content and incitement to hatred as reasons for the shutdown.

Activists and opposition members said their accounts were suspended due to efforts of state officials.

Nelly Ngabima, also known as Princesse de Souba and a former Gabonese intelligence operative from 2015 to 2019 who tapped phones and monitored messages of politicians and the military, said she received threats from government officials that they would make her disappear from social networks.

Within a couple of months her accounts, with a combined following of over 300,000 across Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, were suspended. “They create fake accounts and they put our identities on those accounts, then they report us for identity theft,” Ngabima said.

“Today, Gabonese people even struggle to send a WhatsApp message because they are afraid. ” Felicia Anthonio, campaign manager at the #KeepItOn coalition, said the sustained intentional interference with access to essential digital communication platforms in Gabon is a blatant disregard for people’s fundamental rights, specifically the freedom of expression and the right to access information.

The restrictions were temporarily lifted in April 2026.

A new regulation passed in February 2026 mandates social media users to provide verified names, addresses and ID numbers. Social networks face 50 million central African CFA franc fines and prison terms for non-compliance. The measures form part of broader changes that include a controversial new nationality code signed in February 2026 and published last month.

Critics say the code restricts the rights of naturalised citizens and makes it easier for the state to strip citizens of their nationality. Government spokesperson Charles Edgard Mombo said criticism concerned the form rather than the substance and cited article 99 of Gabon’s constitution, which requires parliament to ratify presidential ordinances issued in times of urgency.

Former prime minister and opposition leader Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze filed a suit challenging the social media restrictions in a Libreville court.

He was arrested in April 2026 for alleged fraud and breach of trust in a 2008 case. His supporters say the charges are politically motivated. This is not Gabon’s first internet disruption. The penultimate shutdown occurred in August 2023 just before a disputed election that Ali Bongo won.

The internet was restored four days later after the military removed Bongo and placed him under house arrest. General Brice Oligui Nguema seized power that month to end 56 years of Bongo family rule. Oligui Nguema won the 2025 presidential election with more than 90 percent of the vote in a contest more open to media scrutiny than previous votes under the Bongos.

Separately, Community Bank, which operates in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, disclosed a cybersecurity incident that exposed customers’ names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. S. Securities and Exchange Commission dated May 7, 2026, the bank said it detected the exposure due to the use of an unauthorized artificial intelligence-based software application.

Sen. Rand Paul announced on May 11, 2026 that a CIA whistleblower will testify at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday. The whistleblower is a veteran with over 20 years of service who worked in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and was assigned to a director’s initiative group that analyzed the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paul said the whistleblower will expose the coverup over the origins of COVID-19 and the lack of transparency from government agencies. He added that the whistleblower believes there are people still within the CIA that were trying to obscure the truth, trying to withhold documents, and that the CIA actually were spying on his group and eavesdropping on his group.

Paul stated it was six to one that the virus they believed came from the lab and their conclusion was then overridden by mid-level or senior people at two in the morning, with the conclusions of the document changed.

The statute of limitations for charging former NIAID director Anthony Fauci expired on May 12, 2026.