The Ugandan authorities have ordered a shut down of social
media ahead of the country’s presidential poll.
The election is scheduled for January 14, 2021.
According to Reuters, the Ugandan authorities have ordered
telecommunications companies to “immediately suspend any access and use” of
social media and online messaging platforms.
Citing a letter from Irene Sewankambo, executive director of
Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Reuters listed the banned social media
sites as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Signal and Viber.
“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,” the letter read.
But Ibrahim Bbosa, UCC spokesman, denied knowledge of a
directive to switch down social media platforms.
The move is said to be in retaliation to the deletion of
government officials’ accounts on Facebook.
Don Wanyama, senior
press secretary to Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is among those whose
Facebook and Instagram accounts were deleted.
In an email, Kezia Anim-Addo, Facebook’s head of
communication for sub-Saharan Africa, had said a network of account linked to
the government’s ministry of information and communications technology was
deleted over coordinated inauthentic behaviour.
“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,” he said.
“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 in the East African nation will be contested
between 76-year-old Museveni and 38-year-old Bobi Wine, a popstar who turned
politician.
Social media giants have continued to clamp down on politicians
who use their virtual accounts to incite violence and cause tension during
elections.
Facebook and Twitter have indefinitely suspended social
media accounts of US President Donald Trump.
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