Uganda: authorities block access to social networks two days before general elections
Many NGOs had written to President Museveni, candidate for re-election, asking for internet access to be preserved before, during and after the polls.
REUTERS - BAZ RATNER
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
This decision comes at the very end of a tense campaign for the presidential and legislative elections.
Votes to be held this Thursday, January 14.
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The decision fell like a chopper on Tuesday, when a coalition of NGOs had just asked the Ugandan authorities not to touch internet access before and during the elections.
According to a letter seen by AFP and Reuters, the director of the Uganda Communications Commission, Irene Sewankambo, ordered operators to "
immediately suspend all access
" to all social networks and messaging services, until see you again.
This Tuesday, in the middle of the afternoon, the network monitoring organization Netblocks confirmed
the blocking
: “
Real-time measurements show that Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, Skype, Viber, Google Play Store, some Telegram servers and some link shortening services are among a long list of social media prescreened and not available through major Ugandan cellular network operators.
"
Ugandan authorities already pinned down
The day before, in
an open letter
, 54 member organizations of the #KeepItOn coalition had asked President Museveni, candidate for a sixth term, as well as these same operators, to guarantee that "
the internet, including social media and other digital communication platforms, remains open, accessible and secure throughout Uganda for the duration of the
[President-elect]
elections and investiture
”.
The Ugandan authorities have in fact been repeatedly singled out by defenders of digital freedoms for attacks on free expression on the internet.
During the previous general elections in February 2016, the country experienced a similar cutoff, justified by "
security reasons
".
More recently, last September, the Ugandan telecoms regulator imposed
an official authorization
before posting content online.
Reprisals
According to a source working in the telecommunications sector and consulted by AFP, this measure was taken in retaliation for the
closure on Monday by Facebook of several accounts
belonging to government officials or supporters of President Yoweri Museveni.
The January 14 presidential election will see eleven candidates face off, including the outgoing president and singer-turned-deputy,
Bobi Wine
, now the main opposition candidate.
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Uganda
Yoweri Museveni