Former Head of the Government’s Citizen Interaction Centre Awel Uwihanganye has lambasted social media giant Facebook for arbitrarily blocking accounts associated with the National Resistance Movement (NRM). The accounts were suspended in the run up to the general elections of 2021, prompting government to indefinitely block Facebook in Uganda.
Uwihanganye was speaking at the Uganda Social Media conference this morning in Kampala. Organized by Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF), the Social Media conference brought stakeholders to discuss the use of social media in Uganda.
Awel Uwihanganye explained how he struggled to engage with the Facebook policy team based in Nairobi, to no avail.
“Even the team in Nairobi seemed not to know what was going on. Perhaps they had not even been briefed, which means that there was no consultations at a broad level to switch off the accounts,” Uwihanganye said.
He added that Facebook acted on the report from a South Africa based group that suggested that the accounts were engaged in inauthentic behavior, a term used to describe the use of Facebook in spreading Facebook and other related activities.
Speaking about the ban on Facebook, Uwihanganye said he understood this to be the only action government had at the time.
“I understand the actions of the leadership. I think they banned Facebook because they had limited options, going by the circumstances at the time,” Uwihanganye added.
Facebook remains banned in Uganda although over 70% of subscribers still access the platform through VPN.
