Africa-Press – Tanzania. The Government has urged social media users to explore economic opportunities available on the cyber space for improving their living standards as well as boosting national development as states eyes to minimize cybercrime offences to optimize productivity.
Social media content creators have also directed to abide by the country’s cyber laws, regulations and culture.
The Deputy Minister of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Pauline Gekul made the appeal during a visit to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) offices in Dar Es Salaam, over the weekend, saying the state is keen to ensure productivity through social media is optimized.
Deputy Minister Gekul insisted that proper use of services offered on the social media platforms will be beneficial to users and the country at large only if they would be used wisely.
She hailed the regulator for discharging communications tasks diligently to ensure cyber space and content broadcast by mainstream media remains safe for consumers.
She added that the TCRA has played an important role to ensure that broadcasters’ contents do not compromise national or undermines social values.
“We are working closely with TCRA to ensure that the contents aired by the media are not only accurate but also conform to the values of our Nation. I would like to use this opportunity to urge the public that when using these networks, they should use them constructively and not destructively…,” she stressed.
During the visit, TCRA officials made a presentation to the Deputy Minister on authority’s duties and responsibilities and later consulted with TCRA Management on various cross-cutting issues that are being managed in collaboration with her Ministry.
She was also briefed on how the TCRA manages online and broadcast contentS Postal, Courier Services and related services under the regulator.
The Deputy assured that members of the Content Committee will be appointed soon after expiry of tjeir tenure.
“The work tenure of the current Content Committee has come to an end, however, we have agreed within the next week new members of the committee to be appointed and the Minister is working on the matter,” insisted the Deputy Minister.
On his part, the TCRA Director General, Dr. Jabiri Bakari noted that the cyber space has multiple opportunities for users, mostly young generation, as he called upon them to harness the available cyber space opportunities for their own economic development benefits and not otherwise.
“So proper and ethical use of the cyber space, online content services, has great opportunities including creation of jobs and rewarding business prospects,” he insisted as he warned users not to upload or share prohibited contents that are a setback.
During her visit, Gekul toured the Communication Museum Center, Customer Information Center and the Content Monitoring Facility Offices.
