Tanzanian activist and social media influencer Mange Kimambi has sued Meta in California state court, alleging the company disabled her Facebook and Instagram accounts under pressure from Tanzanian authorities and then misrepresented why the accounts were removed.
As reported by TechCabal, Kimambi 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 Meta misled users about how it handles government requests to restrict content and failed to follow its own stated human rights policies.
“This case is about Meta’s concealment of government involvement in its censorship decisions,” Kimambi says in the complaint.
Meta disabled Kimambi’s personal account, @mangekimambi80, which had about 2.9 million followers, along with @wananchiforum, a news-focused account with roughly one million followers, in December 2025. Her WhatsApp account was also disabled, but was restored the following month, according to the complaint. The suspensions came weeks after Tanzania’s disputed October 29 election and the protests that followed, during which Kimambi used her accounts to criticize President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government and circulate information about the demonstrations. Her lawsuit alleges the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority pressured Meta to restrict accounts carrying government criticism and calls for protests.
Meta has previously offered a different explanation. “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 the company’s “recidivism” policy, which bars users whose accounts have previously been removed for violations from creating similar accounts.
Kimambi’s complaint argues that policy does not apply to her case, noting @mangekimambi80 had operated since around 2016 and that Meta knew it was connected to her. The complaint also cites a 2024 legal dispute with Meta in which Kimambi was awarded $7,500 plus costs, and claims a company representative acknowledged at the time that the account could continue operating because it had not violated Meta’s rules.
Kimambi is not seeking damages or restoration of her accounts. Instead, she wants the court to compel Meta to disclose when governments influence account suspensions and, where legally permitted, identify the agencies involved. The complaint 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 suit came a week before Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to resolve claims brought by a coalition of state attorneys general alleging the company misrepresented child-related mental health harms caused by Facebook and Instagram, and misled users about the risks. That settlement, along with a $375 million New Mexico jury verdict in March over similar claims, has added to a broader pattern of litigation testing whether Meta’s public statements about its platforms match its internal practices. Kimambi’s case extends that scrutiny from child safety to content moderation and government relations.
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
