Mange Kimambi, a Tanzanian activist and social media influencer, has sued Meta in the United States, accusing the company of disabling her accounts under 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. That claim places the case within a broader debate over how social platforms respond to state requests in politically sensitive moments, especially when the users affected operate outside the country that is said to be applying pressure.

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 accounts.

Kimambi argues that the policy does not apply to her case. Her lawsuit says @mangekimambi80 had operated since around 2016 and that Meta knew it was connected to her. The complaint also cites a previous legal dispute with Meta in 2024, in which Kimambi was awarded $7,500 plus costs, and claims a company representative acknowledged then that the account could continue operating because it had not violated Meta’s rules.

The influencer is not seeking damages or even the restoration of the accounts. Instead, she wants the court to compel Meta to disclose when governments influence account suspensions and, where legally permitted, identify the agencies behind them, a request that could matter to other users trying to understand why moderation decisions are made and what recourse exists when accounts disappear.

The lawsuit also accuses Meta of violating California consumer protection and advertising laws by presenting its content moderation and human rights processes differently from how they operate in practice.

The case comes days after Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to resolve claims that Facebook and Instagram have features that encourage compulsive use among children and that the company has misled users about the risks.

That agreement, reached with dozens of US states, also requires Meta to change how children use its platforms, including daily time limits and restrictions on nighttime use. The settlement adds to mounting legal scrutiny of whether the company’s public representations match its actual operations.