Have you ever had that classical nightmare where a lion is chasing you but your can barely move? Well, that is what I felt on the morning of 18th February 2015 that happened to be Uganda’s election day. I was armed with my phone and laptop ready to share as much information as I could on the Ugandan Election on social media.
Then I noticed that while my Gmail was working perfectly, the Facebook and twitter apps were not. At 8:10 am, I received a whatsApp message from a friend (At that time, whatsAap was still working) who told me that he was facing a similar challenge.
That is when it occurred to me that this problem was not unique to only me. I sent a message to my global Voices Editor who I know surely knew how to get around these things. He sent me to anype.com. Although I managed to access my pages, it was succumbing to the slow Internet connection.
Coincidentally, as I was watching NTV Uganda, the Uganda Communications Commission’s (UCC) spokesperson said in a phone interview revealed that it is a deliberate move to shut down social media confirming our suspicions.
After another two long frustrated hours of rummaging through VPN apps that were hardly downloading, a friend called to tell that the arc VPN on my android phone. I sigh relief. Having beaten the blockade, I am quick to notice that there is little interaction going on Facebook, I knew that it is because some of my Facebook friends were still stuck in the hole like I was in a few hours ago, but as the clock ticked, more netizens were joining the conversation.
On the other hand, Twitter, was buzzing like always although it was also noticeable that some UOT tweeps were Missing In Action.
This move might have caught Ugandans off guard, but we definitely were not surprised. When I did an interview with Michael Niytegeka a social media Guru about the power of social media in Uganda, he actually predicted that the Internet would either slow down or would be shut down completely during elections.
Thanks to the offline linkages because those who knew about the VPN proxies shared that information with those that were not familiar to VPNs through phone calls and SMS. By evening, It is reported that over 1.5million VPN downloads were made.
Even with the blockade, the #UgandaDecides hash tag still managed to trend globally.
When the Government of Uganda was tasked to explain this blockage, they said that they did it for the security of Ugandans.
For a government that seeks to extend their power at all costs, their fear is to some extent justifiable, especially that during the campaigns there was a lot of propaganda on social media. People were carelessly sharing information without verifying it. There were rumors of post-election violence and some facts were blown out of proportion.
The role of social media in Uganda cannot be ignored. The Uganda Communications Commission estimated that there were 8.5 million Internet users in June 2014. There is a significant trickle down effect of social media on the populations in villages because most of what the community radio presenters are on facebook so they share with the audiences is what is trending on on social media.
Maybe the conversations of Ugandan netizen freedoms, rights and responsibilities are long over due.