Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, has created a new cybersecurity ministry that will focus on crimes on social media and other websites ahead of an election due next year.
Appointed as Head of this new Cyber Security, Threat Detection, and Mitigation Ministry is Patrick Chinamasa who is a former Finance minister.Â
Government critics took to twitter deriding Chinamasa as new “minister of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp affairsâ€.
Zimbabweans have also joked about the development, claiming Chinamasa’s appointment makes him the “Minister of WhatsApp and Facebookâ€.Â
However, Chinamasa's first job, it seems, is to get rid of, or regulate the use of Whatsapp and Facebook, raising serious concerns over freedom of expression, access to information and a clampdown on social media messaging.
Zimbabwe actually did, in fact, issue new rules on using WhatsApp, in the country. The rules order groups to be registered and for the administrator of the group to have government level clearance.
It can be argued that Mugabe issued these new rules in order to tone down the rate of inflation in the country via rumours but one can't but wonder if it isn't to maintain Mugabe's 37-year reign, so he could clinch another victory in 2018 presidential elections.
The government has been uneasy with social media after activists such as Pastor Evan Mawararire and his #ThisFlag movement last year used social media to organize a stay-at-home demonstration, the biggest anti-government protest in a decade.
Chinamasa, a lawyer by training, will also be responsible for bringing to parliament a long-awaited cyber-crimes bill that criminalizes false information posted on the internet, revenge porn, cyber-bullying and online activity against the government.
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