Uganda blocks social media and mobile phone services during voting.
Police in Uganda have shut down Twitter and Facebook restricting access to all social media sites as voters went to the polls in today’s presidential elections.
The cops also arrested opposition leader Kizza Besigye at his party’s headquarters on Friday after heavily armed police surrounded the building and a helicopter fired tear gas at a crowd. Vote counting continued in the country’s tumultuous elections.
Semujju Nganda, a spokesperson for Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change party, said police took Besigye to an unknown location. Afterward, they fired tear gas and live ammunition into the air as warning shots, as well as detonating stun grenades.
Besigye, the main rival to President Yoweri Museveni, had been holding a meeting with other leaders of his party, said Ingrid Turinawe, an aide to Besigye.
“The police basically invaded us,” she said.
Uganda’s Communications Commission cited an unspecified threat to national security to justify blocking access to Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp at around 8 a.m. local time, an hour after voting began. Access to the services remained blocked on mobile phones at 9:15 p.m. local time.
“These social media platforms are an important tool for gathering and publicizing news from around Uganda on polling day,” CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney said from New York. “Closing them raises suspicions that any irregularities in voting may not be reported in a timely manner. Such censorship undermines the democratic process.”
The Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN), a leading provider of mobile-phone service in the country, said on Twitter that the commission had ordered it to disable all social media and mobile money-transferring services “due to a threat to public order and safety.” It was not immediately clear if all mobile phone companies had complied with the order.
President Yoweri Museveni, who is seeking to extend his 30-year tenure, speaking about social media, yesterday told television viewers, “Some people misuse those pathways. You know how they use them — telling lies. If you want a right, use it properly.”
The committee for the protection of journalists (CPJ) has documented a series of repressive measures against the media in the weeks ahead of the elections, including physical attacks on journalists, the closure of radio stations, and the arrest of a radio talk show host in the middle of his broadcast.