Uganda Communications Commission shutdown order

Thu Jan 14 10:49:11 UTC 2021

On 13/01/2021, Andy Ringsmuth <andy at andyring.com> wrote:
>
>> On Jan 13, 2021, at 3:39 PM, Alejandro Acosta
>> <alejandroacostaalamo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 13/1/21 4:05 PM, Sean Donelan wrote:
>>>
>>> The Uganda Communications Commission has issued a shutdown order for the
>>> operation of all Internet gateways in Uganda beginning January 13, 2021
>>> until further notice.
>>>
>>> I can't access the official Uganda Communications Commission website, but
>>> this appears to be a copy of the order
>>>
>>> https://twitter.com/DougColtart/status/1349442878481846272/photo/1
>>>
>>
>> So sad to read this. How is it possible to think this is good to
>> anybody?.., ok, maybe to the very high politicians of the country, but no
>> one else. Not less than 44 million people negative affected.
>>
>>
>> That's it.
>>
>>
>> Alejandro,
>
> It is mildly interesting to see what Twitter itself has to say about it:
>
> https://twitter.com/Policy/status/1349059275461685250
>
> "Ahead of the Ugandan election, we're hearing reports that Internet service
> providers are being ordered to block social media and messaging apps.
>
> We strongly condemn internet shutdowns – they are hugely harmful, violate
> basic human rights and the principles of the #OpenInternet.”
>
>
> Oh, the jokes just write themselves…
>
>
> -Andy

The more ironic they're making this announcement together with
announcing the suspension of yet another set of accounts:

  "Earlier this week, in close coordination with our peers, we
suspended a number of accounts targeting the election in Uganda.

  If we can attribute any of this activity to state-backed actors, we
will disclose to our archive of information operations:"

  "Access to information and freedom of expression, including the
public conversation on Twitter, is never more important than during
democratic processes, particularly elections."

Since Twitter's so keen on suspending accounts and removing context
from the conversation flows, here's an archive of this announcement
for posterity:

  https://archive.is/PTNx3

C.