Uganda shut down all social networks in the country on Tuesday after the country’s leader for a long time accused Facebook of taking sides in Thursday’s upcoming presidential election.
President Yoweri Museveni, 76, apologized for the inconvenience caused by the ban, but said Uganda had no choice after Facebook withdrew several accounts linked to its re-election campaign.
“If you want to take sides against the (ruling party), this group will not operate in Uganda,” he said in a national speech.
“We can’t tolerate this arrogance that no one comes to decide for us who is good and who is bad.”
Facebook said Monday that it had removed a network of accounts linked to Uganda’s ministry of information that “used fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people’s content, impersonate users, reshare posts in groups to make them appear more popular than they were. ”
The social media giant did not immediately respond to the president’s comments on Tuesday, but Twitter, which also appeared to be banned, sparked the decision.
“We strongly condemn the closure of the Internet: they are hugely harmful, they violate basic human rights and the principles of #OpenInternet.” he said in a statement.
“Access to information and freedom of expression, including public conversation on Twitter, is never more important than during democratic processes, especially elections.”
Many social media users were outraged by Twitter comments, which noted that the company – which recently permanently suspended President Trump’s account – had sung The New York Post during the 2020 race for its Hunter Biden report. .
“What an incredible level of hypocrisy !!!” wrote one person.
“Awesome tweet. During the run-up to the election in that country, Twitter shut down the NY Post because it disagreed with its news. ” commented another user.
Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, faces a challenge from popular opposition singer and lawmaker Bobi Wine, who has attracted numerous supporters among the nation’s youth.
Wine, 38, used Facebook to broadcast his campaigns and press conferences live, saying many media outlets – most of which are owned by government allies or state administrations – had refused. to welcome him.
The International Press Institute, a global media watchdog, called on Uganda to re-establish social media networks.
“Any effort to block online access to journalists or members of the public constitutes an unacceptable violation of the right to information,” it said in a statement.
With publishing cables