SENEGAL’S GOVERNMENT has suspended the Tik Tok indefinitely, citing the app’s role in spreading “hateful and subversive” content following recent demonstrations in protest at the imprisonment of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko earlier this week.

Announcing the move Moussa Bocar Thiam, Minister of Communication and the Digital Economy said in a statement: “It has been noted that the TikTok application is the social network preferred by ill-intentioned people to disseminate hateful and subversive messages threatening the stability of the country.”

Internet access on mobile phones had already been cut on Monday for the same reasons.

Escalating tensions between Sonko, leader of the PASTEF party, and Senegal’s President Macky Sall have resulted in violent protests over the past year casting a shadow on Senegal’s longstanding status as one of Africa’s most stable democracies.

Opposition supporters have accused the president of levelling charges in order to disqualify Sonko from a presidential election due next year.

Amnesty International has strongly criticized the country’s TikTok ban and the imposition of internet access constraints in Senegal, describing the moves as a “blow against the free flow of information.” The organization has urged the government to reinstate unrestricted internet access.

Experts estimate that Sonko, who will likely stand as a candidate in the 2024 presidential elections, faces anywhere from five to twenty years in prison if he is convicted for a third time on top of his two prior convictions.

The politician, who came third in the 2019 presidential election, was given a two-year prison sentence on June 1 for another case.

The widely criticised conviction caused the most significant unrest in Senegal in years and left sixteen people according to official estimates. However PASTEF supporters claimed the number of people who died was closer to 30.

Having secured a third conviction, Sonko’s legal predicament has escalated significantly. The former third-place finisher in the 2019 presidential race received a two-year prison sentence on June 1 in a separate case.

The latest conviction prompted a wave of unprecedented civil unrest resulting in a death toll of sixteen according to government sources. However this figure was disputed by opposition supporters who claim the number of fatalities following the protests was closer to thirty.