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Stigma against homosexual sex is widespread in Tanzania
The Tanzanian government said that a call from a local official to set up a surveillance squad to find homosexuals "does not represent" an official policy.
Last week, Paul Makonda, head of the trade capital administration, Dar es Salaam, said the team would start work on Monday.
The announcement has been criticized by rights groups.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Tanzania under a law of the colonial era.
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Mr Makonda said last week that he wanted his team, made up of officials from the Tanzania Communications Authority, police and media professionals, to review social media in order to locate and arrest people. people living between people of the same sex.
"Against moral values"
"Give me their names," he told the AFP news agency. "My ad hoc team will start getting their hands on next Monday."
He justified it by saying that homosexuality "tramples the moral values of Tanzanians".
Amnesty International responded by saying that this idea "only serves to incite hatred". should be "immediately abandoned".
At the end of the week, the US embassy in Dar es Salaam warned its Tanzanian citizens that LGBTI people could be arrested.
She told them to "remove or protect images and language that could violate Tanzanian laws relating to homosexual practices and explicit sexual activities".
The European Union reminded its ambassador about "the deterioration of the situation of human rights and the rule of law in the country".
"Not government policy"
But there was no specific mention of the treatment of homosexuals.
The Tanzanian government, in a statement from the Foreign Ministry, said that "Mr. Makonda was only broadcasting his personal opinion" and not the government's policy.
He added that the government "will continue to respect and enforce all human rights in accordance with the country's constitution".
But in recent years, a number of measures seem to have targeted homosexuals.
Last year, the country's deputy health minister defended the threat of publishing a list of homosexuals.
Tanzania has also expelled three South African lawyers accused of promoting homosexuality.
They were among 13 people arrested for taking part in a meeting to discuss a law prohibiting private clinics from providing HIV and AIDS services.
