January 19, 2021
Uganda has moved to clamp down on social media use in the country even as its diplomatic relations with the US have taken a bad turn after a tense and disputed election.
On Monday (Jan. 18), internet services were restored after a shutdown imposed just ahead of polls opening on Jan. 14 but the ban on social media, which was originally imposed on Jan. 13, has remained in place. Only Ugandans with virtual private networks (VPNs) that haven’t already been blocked are currently able to access social media.
The concern now is that regulators have issued an indefinite ban on social media platforms. Some of the affected platforms include Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Skype, and Zoom. App distribution platforms iOS AppStore and Google PlayStore also remain blocked which means users without VPNs cannot download to log on to social media.
January 16, 2021
Leaders with authoritarian tendencies and social media don’t mix well. There’s evidence of this in India, and most recently in the US, when Twitter was forced to ban president Donald Trump from his favorite megaphone.
In Uganda, a parallel digital conflict is playing out in quite a different way. Rhetoric similar to that used to justify the Trump Twitter ban that a country and its citizens must be protected from forces intent on organizing an insurrection was used by the government to justify blocking access to social media platforms and the internet itself ahead of a contentious election. Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, 76, who has ruled the East African country since 1986, has made clear he doesn’t intend to give up power, even as musician-turned-opposition-candidate Robert Kyagulanyi (a.k.a Bobi Wine) garners backing from young Ugandans.
January 13, 2021
For months, Ugandans have witnessed a vicious presidential election campaign without precedent. While the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, has enjoyed free rein on the campaign trail, his youthful main opponent Robert Kyagulanyi, better known by his stage name Bobi Wine, and his supporters have faced numerous obstacles and physical assault. The result is a pervasive sense of political crisis in the run-up to the Jan. 14 vote.
But in this crisis is the potential for release. Ordinary Ugandans are pouring their social and political grievances onto social media platforms, spawning debates around accountability and governance. They have taken to recording events they find newsworthy and posting them directly to ordinary people’s WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. In the process, they are sidestepping traditional channels mainly radio, television, and newspapers along with their bureaucratic and hierarchical procedures of news gathering.