Mange Kimambi, a Tanzanian activist and social media influencer, has sued Meta in the US, accusing the technology company of disabling her accounts due to pressure from Tanzanian authorities during a period of political unrest. Kimambi, who lives in the US, filed the 36-page complaint on August 21 in the Superior Court of California in San Mateo County, where Meta is headquartered.
The lawsuit alleges that the owner of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp misled users about how it handles government requests to restrict content and failed to follow its own stated human rights policies. The case could test how far African governments can reach beyond their borders to restrict critics on global social media platforms, and whether technology companies must disclose when government pressure influences decisions to suspend accounts.
“This case is about Meta’s concealment of government involvement in its censorship decisions,” Kimambi argues in the complaint. Kimambi’s accounts, @mangekimambi80, which had about 2.9 million followers, and @wananchiforum, a news-focused account with roughly one million followers, were disabled in December 2025. Her WhatsApp account was also disabled, but was restored the following month, according to the complaint. The removals came weeks after Tanzania’s disputed October 29 election and the protests that followed it.
Kimambi used her accounts to criticise President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government and circulate information about demonstrations. Her lawsuit alleges that the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) pressured Meta to restrict accounts carrying government criticism and calls for protests. Meta has previously disputed that explanation for the suspensions.
“We don’t allow people to create new accounts that are similar to those we’ve previously removed for violating our Community Standards,” a Meta spokesperson said in December, attributing the removals to its “recidivism” policy that prevents users whose accounts have previously been removed for violating Meta’s rules from creating similar