In February of this year, 2016, the Ugandan government called for a total social media shut down. An article written by Briana Duggan, CNN, covers the details. The election in February caused tensions to grow. Votes were being counted and there was a ban on social media. Ugandans hoped to again swear in Yoweri Museveni for his fifth term over the past 30 years. The day voting began, “politically minded voters” were not able to tweet or update their Facebook once the government put the ban into action. President Museveni backed up the ban saying it was a “security measure to avert lies…intended to invite violence and illegal declaration of election results.” Groups of human rights activists criticized the ban and found loop holes in order to gain access using encrypted private networks. This election, as well as almost every other election around the world, was using social media as a form of debating and rallying together. The same rights groups have brought attention to the fact that due to the ban on social media the freedom of association and expression were under threat. This ban lasted for three days.
"The Ugandan government's decision to block access to social media on mobile phones on election day is a blatant violation of Ugandans' fundamental rights to freedom of expression and to seek and receive information," said Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International's deputy regional director. "Without clearly defined security concerns, this closure is nothing but an exercise in censorship as Ugandans elect their leaders.”
Within the next three months, the Ugandan Government had its second social media blackout. This information now coming from an article written by Lily Kuo, a journalist for Quartz: Africa. Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, was again elected and sworn in on May 12th 2016 for his fifth term. The only thing absent during the ceremony was the buzz of opinions, comments, and photographs on social media. The day prior to the inauguration, the communication regulator for the country, blocked access to social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp. This ban was claimed to be for “security reasons” as posted by Radio Free Buganda.
“The government knows that Museveni was not rightly elected by the majority of citizens… thus, it fears that citizens might organize online and cause an upraising [like] the Arab-spring,” said Jeff Wokulira Ssebaggala, chief executive of Unwanted Witness, a Ugandan nonprofit that advocates for freedom of speech."
This is an all new focus for the Ugandan government’s “restrictive attempts” to manage the media. Within the same month of the election, the authorities had also placed a ban on media outlets so they could not report live on anything that had to do with the opposing part of Yoweri Museveni. In a more violent perspective of these restrictions, many journalist, more than a dozen, were arrested or beaten if they attempted to ignore the ban. Social media is now being seen as an extremely powerful tool in order to control the country’s views on everything. They control was they can send out and what they can receive, subconsciously altering their view of the world around them.