Uganda on Tuesday January 12, two days before the presidential election, ordered its internet operators to suspend access to all social networks and messaging services until further notice, according to a letter from the telecommunications regulator consulted by AFP.

In this letter, the director of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Irene Sewankambo, ordered operators to "immediately suspend all access" to these services, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Signal and Viber.

This decision was first announced in a "violent and aggressive" manner during telephone calls to operators earlier in the day, a source working in the telecommunications sector told AFP on condition of anonymity.

According to her, the authorities have made it clear to ISPs that this measure was taken in retaliation for the closure by Facebook of several accounts belonging to government officials or supporters of President Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986 and who is seeking a new mandate.

The American giant had justified this decision on Monday by explaining that these accounts formed a network linked to the Ugandan Ministry of Information, which implemented "coordinated inauthentic behavior", to "influence the public debate ahead of the election" . 

Access to virtual private networks soon blocked 

On Monday, a list of more than 100 virtual private networks (VPNs), services that allow access to the Internet by connecting through a country other than its actual location and thus bypassing local access restrictions, was distributed to Ugandan access providers, said the telecommunications specialist source.

Access to these tools should also be blocked.

As of Monday, many users of social networks and online messaging services have reported problems accessing it.

For its part, the Ugandan regulator denies any restriction on access to the country.

"I am not aware of any directives aimed at blocking access to the Internet or to social networks," a spokesperson for the UCC (Uganda Communications Commission), Ibrahim Bbosa, told AFP. 

He acknowledged "connection slowness, which may be due to the amount of traffic caused by the upcoming elections," he said.

With AFP

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