ELECTIONS | TECHNOLOGY

US tech giant Facebook has come under strong criticism following its decision to block some accounts linked to the Ugandan government and its supporters.

Facebook's head of communication for sub-Saharan Africa, Kezia Anim-Addo, was quoted as saying the blocked accounts were engaged in what was termed as “coordinated inauthentic behavior”.

The January 9 move came only days before Thursday’s general election.

"This month, we removed a network of accounts and pages in Uganda that engaged in CIB (coordinated inauthentic behaviour) to target public debate ahead of the election," said Anim-Addo, adding that over 100 such networks have been removed worldwide since 2017.

She also noted that the officials, “used fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people's content, impersonate users, re-share posts in groups to make them appear more popular that they were".

In her email, Anim-Addo said the network was linked to the ICT ministry.

"Given the impending election in Uganda, we moved quickly to investigate and take down this network."

'Double standard'

But the move has been criticized by different people, including Government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo, who said talk of only one of the side of the political divide (Government) being targeted is justified “because we are not privy to anybody in the Opposition who has been removed”.

“To the contrary, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has written to Facebook [and] to Twitter requesting them to look into the social media accounts of some of the activities of these other people [Opposition] and Facebook has been saying they can’t do so – they can’t suspend them – until they have investigated.

“We are waiting for their investigation,” said Ofwono in an interview at the Media Centre in Kampala.

“On our [Government] side, they didn’t tell us who has complained. They have not told us the nature of the complaint. They have not written, even to say ‘we are going to switch you off’. They have not done so. And so it is a double a standard.

“And that ties very well with what our intelligence is telling us – that some of the Opposition is working with foreign interests and this is an element of foreign interests.”

VIDEO: @OfwonoOpondo responding to @Facebook’s action of blocking @MoICT_Ug employee’s accounts towards Presidential elections on @AJEnglish. #UgandaDecides2021 pic.twitter.com/9ZwTqXSmD4

— Uganda Media Centre (@UgandaMediaCent) January 11, 2021

Senior presidential press secretary Don Wanyama, whose Instagram account was also reportedly affected, weighed in on the development.

In a tweet, he accused foreigners of trying to “plant a puppet leadership” on Uganda.

"Shame on the foreign forces that think they can aid and plant a puppet leadership on Uganda by disabling online accounts of NRM supporters. You won’t take away President Kaguta Museveni,” said Wanyama.

Adding: “Big techs like Twitter and Facebook are being used by opponents of the NRM to stifle pro-NRM voices in Uganda. They should “unfreeze” accounts they froze … We pray Uganda Communications Commission is watching and can act to ensure a fair digital playfield.”

Also on Twitter, former ICT and now gender minister Frank Tumwebaze told UN’s ICT agency ITU and its secretary general Houlin Zhao that “one of the threats we must speak against in our digital ecosystem is this abuse of communication platforms by tech giants”.

“Connectivity should not be a right to enjoy at the mercy of tech giants. Facebook should unblock selectively targeted Ugandan accounts ASAP!” he added.