Deputy Minister of Information of Somalia Abdirahman Yusuf Saturday declared a crackdown on media organisations that publish “propaganda” for Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (al-Shabaab). Beginning on October 9, media outlets that disseminate al-Shabaab messages and news will be punished. Yusuf said that broadcasting al-Shabaab attacks will be recognized as a criminal act and declared that there will be no circulation of al-Shabaab audio clips, video clips, photos and messages.

The Somali government has intensified its fight against al-Shabaab militarily and economically and has embarked on a process to curb the broadcast of the group’s “propaganda information.” President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud vowed an all-out war on the jihadists. Yusuf confirmed that the government has also launched cyber operations against “terrorist accounts” on social media, disabling more than 40 accounts on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in the past 48 hours.

Officials said that normal news coverage about al-Shabaab by journalists in Somalia will not be affected. However, government officials have “arbitrarily” arrested indepedent journalists, according to Amnesty International, and Freedom House reports that “journalists regularly face harassment, arbitrary detention, suspension, fines, and violence from both state and nonstate actors.” Local media reports have also revealed that the government put former Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys under house arrest for sharing videos of him addressing the current situation on social media.