The Government of Equatorial Guinea has restricted its citizens from downloading and sharing multimedia files using mobile data on WhatsApp.
This decision is part of the guidelines that the country’s government gave to telecommunications operators when it urged them to implement measures to restrict access to inappropriate content.
The country’s Director General, National Financial Investigation Agency, Baltasar Engonga, was enmeshed in a sex scandal involving the wives of notable people.
The scandal emerged in the course of a fraud investigation against the 54-year-old Economist which resulted in the search of his house and office on impromptu notice by ANIF officials who came across several CDs that later revealed his sexcapades with different married women.
The over 400 videos reportedly include encounters with high-profile individuals, such as his brother’s wife, his cousin, the sister of the President of Equatorial Guinea, the Director General of Police’s wife, and about 20 of the country’s ministers’ wives, among others.
The footage, discovered in his office, was said to have been recorded with consent and has since been leaked online, causing a media uproar.
However, in a new development on Tuesday, a local news platform, Ahora EG, reported that the citizens have been lamenting their inability to share photos, videos, and audio when using a mobile data connection, leading users to rely exclusively on WiFi networks to share such content.
Earlier, the Vice President of Equatorial Guinea, Teddy Nguema, announced plans to install surveillance cameras in all state body offices.
This sweeping measure is part of an ongoing effort to ensure strict adherence to public service laws and combat misconduct among officials.
