PORT LOUIS (Reuters) – Mauritius’s communications regulator said on Friday all internet service providers must suspend access to social media platforms until Nov. 11, a day after the upcoming general election, as the country reels from a wiretapping scandal.
Some twenty conversations involving politicians, police, lawyers, journalists and members of civil society have been leaked on social media since mid-October, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders says.
In the Nov. 10 election, Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth is looking to hold onto his Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) party’s majority in parliament and give himself another five years in office.
Jugnauth and the police have claimed the leaked calls were manipulated using artificial intelligence.
(Reporting by Villen Anganan; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Tom Hogue)
