TRUE: A Tanzanian man has been arrested on charges of opening a Facebook account to spread COVID-19 misinformation
The man’s arrest was confirmed by police in Morogoro
A tweet by Jamii Forums claiming that police in Morogoro had arrested a man for allegedly opening a Facebook account to spread false information on COVID-19 in Tanzania is TRUE.
The tweet contains a link to a post on Jamii Forums with details on the incident. The post further adds that the suspect, Awadhi Lugoya, was accused of opening the account for purposes of misinforming the public about COVID-19.
On April 5, 2020, Morogoro regional police commander Mr Wilbroad Mutafungwa, said that Lugoya, a resident of Mazimbu area, had been reported by citizens on April 1, 2020, and area officers arrested him.
Mr Mutafungwa stated that the suspect had been accused of wrongful use of social media, stating that the Facebook account he opened called “Coronavirus Tanzania” has been spreading misleading information about the pandemic.
According to Tanzania’s Online Content Regulations 2018, the offense attracts a fine of at least TSh5 million or a minimum prison sentence of 12 months, or both, if one is found guilty.
On March 21, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa warned against misinformation around the coronavirus outbreak, stating that those found guilty would be dealt with.
The Ministry of Health on March 20 released a list of experts allowed to educate the public about COVID-19.
PesaCheck has looked into a claim that a Tanzanian man had been arrested for allegedly opening a Facebook account to spread false information about COVID-19 and finds it to be TRUE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organizations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Najma Juma, and edited by PesaCheck News Editor Enock Nyariki.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water/sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is a joint initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovate African fund, with additional funding support from the International Budget Partnership (Kenya) and Twaweza, in partnership with a coalition of local media organizations, and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).
