The government of Zambia is looking to emulate recent developments in Tanzania and possibly ban civil servants from using social media during work hours. However, industry analysts have warned this action curtails a citizen's right to freedom of communication and expression.

Officials in Tanzania have been prevented from using social media platforms and chat apps during working hours, and authorities in Zambia are considering doing the same.

However Danson Njue, Research Analyst, Middle East and Africa at Ovum, said gagging social media is likely to be seen as interfering with freedom of expression of citizens by the Tanzanian government.

Njue said the East African country has a high internet penetration rate and the use of social networks has contributed immensely to promoting internet usage, especially among the country's youth.

In April 2015 a Reuters report stated the country had a mobile phone penetration of 67% and according to Internet World Stats by end December 2014, was home to 7,590, 794 internet users, with the percentage of individuals using the internet standing at 4.86, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Njue also pointed out that most businesses have adopted social networks as an essential customer service tool.

"The government hopes to boost productivity through the ban of social networks at work. However, it is not clear how it plans to implement the ban. Most workers use personal devices which are not connected to government networks and the government lacks the capacity to track that. The same applies to other governments in the region including Zambia," Njue said.

Amos Kalunga, a telecom analyst at Computer Society of Zambia, said a ban on the use of social media during working hours should be prevented because it will "only serve to injure people's rights to communicate freely".

"The decision is a violation of people's freedom of expression and the freedom to communicate by every citizen without interference. Therefore, the implementations of the ban should be stopped without hesitation," Kalunga said.

Like Tanzania, the Zambian government has warned that "gossiping" on social media would lead to dismissals, claiming that the practice was affecting productivity.