{"id":902,"date":"2026-05-13T04:50:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T04:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=902"},"modified":"2026-05-13T04:50:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T04:50:30","slug":"blatant-disregard-for-rights-concern-grows-over-gabons-social-media-clampdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=902","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Blatant disregard for rights\u2019: concern grows over Gabon\u2019s social media clampdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Activists claim use of laws to curtail internet freedoms part of well-documented history of cracking down on dissent<\/p>\n<p>When Gabon\u2019s media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February, citing security concerns during anti-government protests, it became the talk of town \u2013 literally.<\/p>\n<p>Within weeks of the announcement, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the restrictions surged in the central African country. When gendarmerie began stopping young men at road checkpoints in the capital Libreville and other urban centres to confiscate mobile phones with VPNs installed or detain the owners, warnings spread by word of mouth. Activists and opposition members said their accounts were also suspended due to efforts of state officials.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/may\/13\/concern-gabon-social-media-clampdown-human-rights\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Activists claim use of laws to curtail internet freedoms part of well-documented history of cracking down on dissent When Gabon\u2019s media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February, citing security concerns during anti-government protests, it became the talk of town \u2013 literally. Within weeks of the announcement, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}