Social media has emerged as the primary remaining space for dissent, which explains why nearly 60 per cent of Turkish citizens get their news via social media and messaging apps and why such platforms – Twitter, in particular – are the bane of Mr Erdogan’s existence.
“We’ll eradicate Twitter,” the Turkish leader vowed in 2014, as reports of a massive corruption scandal shot around social media. “Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic.”
Mr Erdogan’s government has moved to muzzle discussions online almost since he came to power in 2003. Four years later, Turkish parliament passed a law regulating internet publications and an Ankara court blocked YouTube for criminal activity. Repeated blocks against Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram and Wikipedia have followed.
Internet shutdown for Uganda election Citizens now wait for business to return to normal 21 January 2021 - 17:24 Nita Bhalla and Alice McCool Uganda s President Yoweri Museveni. Picture: REUTERS/ARND WIEGMANN
Nairobi/Kampala When Uganda ordered an internet shutdown on the eve of the presidential election, groundnut seller Susan Tafumba’s trade collapsed.
The 34-year-old sells groundnuts at Kampala’s Nakawa market, but much of her business now comes through a mobile phone app that customers use to order goods to be delivered to them by motorcycle taxis.
“Usually the app gets us more profit than those people who come daily to the market, but we lost customers,” said Tafumba, one of countless small traders whose livelihoods were hit by the shutdown.
Daily Monitor
Friday January 22 2021
A user attempts to update Facebook’s WhatsApp application on his mobile phone. Many users are opting for VPN to run their social media accounts during Internet shutdowns. PHOTO | AFP
Summary
The line ministry says they will identify all the websites offering VPN services and block them before tracing to arrest those who are already using the VPN services.
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Government yesterday warned Ugandans using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) that it has acquired capacity to monitor and switch off the sites of the VPN service providers.
Government also said they will hunt down those who have already installed the application on their mobile phones and arrest them.
Access Now 20 January 2021 | 10:14 am
On January 13, the eve of the 2021 presidential election in Uganda, the government ordered a complete internet shutdown. Voters headed out to the polls with no methods of online communication or tools to access information about the election process or outcome.
Authorities have now lifted the four-day total internet blackout, letting people gradually get back online. But this was only after sitting president Yoweri Museveni had already been declared the winner claiming (once again) the position of power he has held since 1986. The government is still blocking social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, which
remain inaccessible in Uganda without circumvention tools.