Days before the presidential election is scheduled to hold, the Ugandan government has shut down social media.
Telecommunications companies in the country were directed to “immediately suspend any access and use” of all social media platforms, as reported by Reuters.
Listed as part of the platforms shut down by the country’s communications commission are Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber, Twitter, and Signal.
A letter by the Executive Director of Uganda, Irene Sewankambo, stated that the platforms will be suspended until “further notice”.
It read, “Uganda Communications Commission hereby directs you to immediately suspend any access and use, direct or otherwise, of all social media platforms and online messaging applications over your network until further notice.”
However, responding to the news of the suspension of social media platforms, the spokesperson of the commission, Ibrahim Bbosa, said that he was unaware of any such order.
Act of Revenge?
Reports have it that the move by the government is revenge for the deactivation of the accounts of government officials’ accounts on Facebook.
Speaking on why the accounts were deleted, Facebook’s Head of Communication in Sub-Saharan Africa, Kezia Anim-Addo said that the deleted pages “engaged in coordinated inauthentic behaviour in a bid to target the public debate in anticipation of the upcoming election.
Anim-Addo said, “This month, we removed a network of accounts and pages in Uganda that engaged in CIB (Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour) to target public debate ahead of the election.
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“They used fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people’s content, impersonate users, re-share posts in groups to make them appear more popular that they were.
“Given the impending election in Uganda, we moved quickly to investigate and take down this network.”
The election is scheduled to hold on January 14 and will see Museveni in a race with popstar-turned-politician and activist Bobi Wine.
