The Cybercrimes Act, 2015 (Act No. 14 of 2015)

The Cybercrimes Act, 2015 (Act No. 14 of 2015) is Tanzania's principal cybercrime statute. It was passed by the National Assembly in April 2015 and came into operation on 1 September 2015. The Act creates a broad set of offences in Part II, closely tracking the Budapest Convention model for the computer-integrity offences while adding several content offences. Computer-integrity and computer-related offences include illegal access, illegal remaining in a system, illegal interception, illegal data interference, data espionage, illegal system interference, illegal devices, computer-related forgery and computer-related fraud. Content and conduct offences include child pornography, pornography, identity-related crimes, publication of false, deceptive, misleading or inaccurate information (section 16), racist and xenophobic material, cyber-bullying, violation of intellectual property rights, and the unsolicited sending of messages (spam). Part III confers extensive investigative and procedural powers on police officers and law-enforcement officers, several of which may be exercised on the officer's own authority rather than requiring prior judicial authorisation: search and seizure of computer systems and data, expedited preservation of stored data, disclosure of preserved traffic data, collection of traffic data in real time, and interception of content data. The Act also imposes duties on service providers to preserve and disclose data and to assist investigations, provides for the admissibility of electronic evidence, and sets out the territorial and extraterritorial jurisdiction of Tanzanian courts. Investigation is led by the police and prosecutions are conducted by the Director of Public Prosecutions; the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) plays a related sectoral role. The statute attracted significant domestic and international criticism, particularly of section 16 (publication of false information) and the broad warrantless search-and-seizure and data-interception powers in Part III, on the grounds that they chill freedom of expression and lack adequate judicial oversight, and the Act has been used in prosecutions of journalists, activists and ordinary social-media users.

1. 1Computer-integrity offences (Part II): illegal access, illegal interception, data and system interference, data espionage and illegal devices
2. 2Computer-related forgery and fraud
3. 3Content offences: child pornography, identity-related crime, racist or xenophobic material, cyber-bullying and publication of false information (s.16)
4. 4Procedural powers (Part III): search and seizure, expedited preservation of data, real-time collection of traffic data and interception of content data, in some cases without prior court order
5. 5Service-provider obligations to preserve, disclose and assist; admissibility of electronic evidence
6. 6Territorial and extraterritorial jurisdiction of Tanzanian courts
7. 7Enforced by the Police and prosecuted by the Director of Public Prosecutions