Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has defended social media shut down ahead of the elections. He accused social media giant Facebook of arrogance and bias as he confirmed ordering the shut down of social media and messaging apps ahead of Thursday’s poll.
Ugandan authorities ordered telecoms on Tuesday to shut down social media and messaging services, two days before the presidential and parliamentary elections. Some have described the situation as tense.
French news agency AFP, reports that the executive director of Uganda communications commission, Irene Sewankambo, had ordered telecommunications companies, in a letter, to ‘immediately suspend any access and use’ of social media and online messaging platforms.
The order was allegedly in retaliation for Facebook’s deletion of pro-government accounts for allegedly seeking to manipulate public debate before Thursday’s key polls.
Some users were turning to Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to bypass the blockade.
76-year-old president Yoweri Museveni is running against 37-year-old singer Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, who became a member of parliament three years ago. Museveni has been in power for more than three decades.
The list of banned social media sites includes Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Signal and Viber. Some of these were already offline on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Uganda is stepping up election security in hotspots. Security forces in Uganda say they will beef up deployments in 39 districts across the country, considered hotspots for violence.
