01/04/2021
u, 11 Mar 2021 07:05:07 GMT
Unplugged … Uganda’s Yuweri Museveni
Uganda’s shutdown of social media services in January, right before a disputed election handed President Yoweri Museveni a sixth term, dealt a devastating blow to rice trader Elizabeth Nagunda: Her sales slowed to a near halt.
“Before I would advertise, market my products on Facebook, WhatsApp, and even get customer orders” via those platforms, she said in an interview in Kampala, the capital. “I can’t run any more adverts online. Even if I do, there are no people to view them.”
Facebook and Google are spending billions trying to get more people online in Africa, but the Internet giants are now facing a backlash from governments worried about social media platforms being used to remove them from power.
Governments in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly ordering Internet service providers to shut their gateways or throttle data traffic These platforms, including Twitter, gave opposition politicians access to previously unreachable audiences and have been used to organise protests — most notably during the Arab Spring that toppled leaders from Tunisia to Egypt.
Now governments in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly ordering Internet service providers to shut their gateways or throttle data traffic when confronted with dissent or the threat of electoral defeat.
Facebook, Twitter and other companies have pushed back, condemning the disruptions and blocking accounts they allege are being used to undermine democracy — actions that further raised the authorities’ ire and led to several outright bans on their services. Access Now and the Coalition, which campaign for an end to Internet shutdowns, documented 20 intentional disruptions in a dozen African nations last year.
Worst violators Ethiopia was among the worst violators of online freedom in 2020, imposing at least four outages in a bid to contain ethnic unrest and restrict the flow of information during a conflict in its northern Tigray
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