Uganda and Social Media platforms, who needs who?
By Staff Writer
As you are aware Uganda government shutdown internet a day ahead of general elections over manipulations, misuse and abuse. Many people had turned social media platforms into a weapon against their foes.
Unfortunately, the gullible opposition supporters thought this was their God-sent weapon; they used the social media platforms post fake news and spread manipulations, which incited and excited the trigger happy idlers. This was accelerated by the fact that admins of Facebook gave an open support to the opposition by deleting and blocking accounts of members who supported the government. This annoyed the government especially the president.
Moments before the internet shutdown; President Yoweri Museveni said; ”
“Facebook decided to block NRM message centers,” Museveni said in his speech, referring to the ruling National Resistance Movement.
“Why would anyone do that? I told my people to close it. If it is to operate in Uganda, it should be used equitably.”
He said that closing Facebook and other social media platforms is unfortunate but unavoidable. He however apologized to Ugandans who are affected by the closures.
Uganda is scheduled to hold elections Thursday. Social media was also closed down when the country went to the polls in 2016, to the disappointment of users.
Addressing the nation in Kampala, Museveni accused Facebook of being arrogant.
A few days ago, Facebook closed the accounts of two Museveni supporters locally known as Bajjo and Full Figure over what it called misuses of their accounts.
Due to the closures, the government is punishing Facebook by closing it in the country, Museveni said earlier.
The closing of his supporters’ accounts did not go well with Museveni, especially after Uganda failed in its efforts a few weeks ago to make Facebook close some accounts that the state deemed dangerous to the county’s security.
He criticized Facebook for being against the government to the extent of closing some of its accounts and said Facebook has no right to say who is good and who is bad in Uganda.
Well, is Facebook the only social media platform? Uganda and Facebook who needs the other?
The answer is that Facebook needs Uganda because Uganda can opt to use an alternative, leaving facebook out of business.
Facebook is easily the largest social networking site in the world and one of the most widely used, but there are others like:
- 2 – WhatsApp. …
- 3- QQ. …
- 4 – WeChat. …
- 5 – QZone. …
- 6 – Tumblr. …
- 7 – Instagram. …
- 8 – Twitter.