Mahama backs national forum on social media rules as arrests over online speech draw scrutiny

Pinned summary · as of 05:30

President John Dramani Mahama has asked two media bodies, the GJA (Ghana Journalists Association) and the MFWA (Media Foundation for West Africa), to host a countrywide forum on hate speech and abusive material online, in a letter dated 22 September. Speaking to Ghanaians in New York on Friday, 25 September, he said he was not bothered by insults, learns of many arrests only from the media, and wants stakeholders to decide how TikTok and other new media should be handled.

What we know

• The Presidency wrote to the MFWA and the GJA, in a letter from its secretary Dr Callistus Mahama, directing them to co-host a nationwide consultation of stakeholders. Its subject is hate speech, abuse and other damaging material spreading on social media and emerging digital platforms.
• The letter, dated Tuesday, 22 September 2026, sets out a two-sided aim: threats, incitement, hate speech and other unlawful behaviour should be confronted, yet fair criticism, political comment, satire and dissent should never be criminalised.
• The Presidency voiced concern that heavy-handed arrests over criticism or politically charged commentary could backfire, produce martyrs who have not earned the status and weaken public trust in state institutions.
• The letter observes that public debate now runs through bloggers, influencers and TikTok users as well as traditional media, and that many of them reach large audiences without recognised editorial standards or clear accountability.
• The organisers are to draw in the police, the National Media Commission, faith groups, civic organisations and established media houses. Content creators, lawyers and rights specialists, and regulatory and security agencies are also expected at the table.
• Participants are asked to test the adequacy of existing laws and institutions, mark where lawful criticism ends and unlawful speech begins, draft practical guidelines for law enforcement, and look at digital literacy, ethical standards for content creators, complaints channels and alternatives to arrest where no clearly criminal conduct is involved.
• The MFWA and GJA must send the President a proposed framework and timetable, together with recommendations from the process.
• Addressing Ghanaians in New York on Friday, 25 September, Mr Mahama said insults aimed at him do not trouble him. Reflecting on his years of abuse and his defeat at the polls, he said, “So for me, this skin is a crocodile skin.”
• Mr Mahama said he often finds out about arrests of social media users and TikTokers only when the media report them, and that it worries him when people are reportedly detained for insulting him.
• He argued that Ghanaians must decide together how TikTok should be regulated, noting that governments elsewhere are asking the same question about information integrity, and he criticised how easily anyone with a phone can publish content that an algorithm then spreads.
• Mr Mahama proposed that the GJA, the MFWA and other stakeholders convene a workshop or forum to settle how new media should be handled, including whether the police should be involved, and said the outcome would guide government.
• He said he could tell the police chief, and take the matter to Cabinet, so that no speech-related arrests take place, then asked if Ghanaians truly want that.
• Mr Mahama acknowledged that police can go to extremes and that there is no clear stopping point once arrests begin, while cautioning that free expression should not be read as unlimited licence, since online threats against a head of state would draw swift action elsewhere.
• The MFWA itself has questioned how laws on false news and offensive speech are being applied in these arrests.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  The letter did not fix a deadline for the submissions or say when the engagement would start, and that copies were sent to the ministers for the Interior and for Communications, the government communications minister, the media commission chair and the police chief, according to The Vaultz News. No other report carried these details.
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  Onua Online listed several arrests it linked to remarks about the President. Two women aged 29 were arrested on 6 August over a TikTok live and later charged with offensive conduct and conspiracy, then given bail of GH₵100,000 each. On 12 August police arrested two TikTokers, alleging they mocked victims of that day's helicopter crash and threatened the President and First Lady. A man received a seven-month prison term after admitting he had threatened officials. These accounts rest on that report alone.
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  The Vaultz News reported further cases: a woman arrested in the Ashanti Region in May, whom police alleged had made threatening and inciting videos; a woman who pleaded guilty and in July received a one-year sentence with hard labour; and a Techiman nurse held in custody since 17 September on a charge tied to alleged false news, due back in court on 30 September. Former Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia demanded the nurse's release and charged the government with enforcing the law selectively, while lawyer Vicky Bright urged police to drop a second prosecution in one of the cases. None of this has been confirmed elsewhere.
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  Onua Online reported that the police service says it respects free speech but will act against statements that stir up violence or disorder. It also reported civil society groups, including the MFWA, as saying the offences used, such as the offensive conduct provision in the Criminal Offences Act, are lawful but out of proportion to speech cases.
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  Ghana News Online reported Mr Mahama as saying his long political career has given him resilience, and that he is focused on doing right by Ghana and Africa whatever the criticism.
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  The Ghanaian Chronicle, in an editorial, welcomed the proposed national conversation and argued that regulation should involve journalists, civil society, legal and technology experts and users, not only politicians and security agencies. It said attacking officials should not automatically count as a crime, and that the law must be applied evenly, including to government supporters.
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  The Chronicle also recalled that in September 2025 Mr Mahama warned people who spread hate speech and incitement online that they would face the law, and said technology could trace them through IP addresses. It asked him to explain how that squares with his present position, and relayed his remark that the police act independently and do not tell him of every arrest.

Why it matters for Ghana

Arrests over social media posts touch ordinary users, content creators, journalists and political commentators across Ghana, who want to know where fair criticism ends and an offence begins. A forum involving media bodies, civil society and possibly the police could shape how complaints about online content are handled in future. Until the process is set out and its recommendations are published, users cannot tell which rules or enforcement approach will apply.