Minister Chombo accused the press and social media of spreading alarm and despondency warning that government would take “decisive action to deal a telling blow” to the perpetrators of crime. The minister’s statement was a blatant threat against the exercise of freedom of expression on the part of both citizens and the media as provided for in Sections 61 and 62 of the Zimbabwean Constitution. In a country with high voice-call rates, coupled with a political environment where freedom of association is sometimes restricted, social media has provided affordable and relatively safe platforms for Zimbabweans with similar interests to “meet and share their views. This has significantly improved the flow and accessibility of information in the country. Unfortunately some of the information shared by citizens also reflects on governance issues, including important ones such as management of the current economic crisis. For example, towards the end of September 2017, Zimbabwe experienced sporadic price increases, which citizens documented and shared on social media. The statements released by government after that spell of price increases, blamed inaccurate social media posts for causing panic buying which then led to opportunistic retailers hiking their retail prices. The minister’s remarks were thus calculated at instilling self-censorship on the part of both the individual and the media, to curb the free flow of information on pertinent socioeconomic and political issues. Subsequently, Martha O’Donovan, an American citizen working with Magamba Network Trust, a social media network, was in November 2017 arrested and charged with subversion and insulting the president through a tweet in which she allegedly called then president Mugabe a “sick man”. Martha’s arrest serves as a warning on how closely state authorities are now monitoring statements made through social media. She was charged under Section 33 (2) of the existing Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] which criminalises the making of statements which undermine the authority of the president. During the same month, members of the Criminal Investigations Department raided Magamba offices and confiscated desktops and laptops. O’Donovan spent seven days at Chikurubi Maximum Prison in Harare before being granted bail by the High Court. The offence carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment. If past trends are anything to go by, there is high probability that the proposed cybercrimes 9