Some pro-NRM Facebook accounts including that of infamous blogger Ashburg Katto were banned from the popular social media platform for using their accounts to promote hate speech that creates fear among the public and incites violence and for spreading propaganda.
This ban comes ahead of the elections yet to take place later this week. As you’ve noticed in a recent wave of bans, some of the most widely used social media networks have been taking action against accounts and pages that are using their platforms to spread lies and instigate violence.
Read also: Latest 2021 WhatsApp privacy policy forces users to find alternative apps.
Social networking sites say that they shall not tolerate any behavior or content that violates the clear-cut rules of using these applications and one of them is sharing content that expresses any form of violent behavior.
A list of the blocked pro-NRM Facebook accounts
The accounts and pages whose access has been cut off currently are those that belonged to Ashburg Katto, events promoter Bajjo, Jenniffer Full figure, Isma Olaxess, Duncan Abigaba of GCIC (Government Citizen Interaction Center), ChimpReports, Dickens Okello of ChimpReports.
Some of the owners of the pro-NRM Facebook accounts went to Twitter to express their utter disappointment in Facebook’s recent actions and asked for the President and UCC (Uganda Communications Commission) to intervene. He said this was done unfairly and was done in a targeted manner by those who uphold the opposition abroad.
Twitter has also taken similar measures after it deleted musician Bebe Cool’s tweet where he recently posted private information about Bobi Wine’s children which included specific travel details. Such private content is highly prohibited especially without any permission because it portrays the intention to endanger people’s lives by putting them in harm’s way.
In a new development, there are claims that the pro-NRM bloggers blocked their own accounts so that they could allege that these were actions of the opposition in a bid to cut them off social media ahead of the elections.
Let us not forget however that it was pro-opposition social media pages and accounts like Ghetto TV that have been hacked in the past in one situation where Ashburg himself bragged about it as he said, “I did not hack Ghetto TV. I only took what is mine”.
READ: Electoral Commission receives 38,500 biometric voter verification machines to avoid voter fraud.