Uganda could face a second internet shutdown this year on Wednesday 12th, the day of the swearing-in ceremony that will see President Museveni take on another term. Internet outages are nothing new to many Ugandans, who have grown accustomed to being cut off from the rest of the world for a few days during times of high political stress.
Also read: Internet shutdown in Uganda starts ahead of 2021 elections as citizens suffer to download apps
Uganda could face a second internet shutdown as security forces likely to support idea
According to a tweet by award-winning journalist Mujuni Raymond, the joint security task force will likely vote for another shutdown of the internet.
The last internet shutdown during the election period in January was such a blow to many internet users in Uganda and lasted for almost a week which was a new record. The shutdown started with switching off Google PlayStore and the App Store limiting many from downloading apps especially VPNs in preparation for the shutdown.
Just like the incident of 2016 where social media apps were switched off, many had armed themselves with VPNs hoping to stay online this time around as people were seemingly more educated about the loopholes. However, nothing prepared the tech-savvy Ugandans for the complete shutdown of the internet as Virtual Private Networks became useless.
Read also: Social media shutdown in Uganda gets many off-guard as they struggle to stay connected
Citing a case of national security, the government admitted to shutting down the internet to prevent malicious people from taking advantage of digital spaces to incite violence. The internet was restored after 5 days however social media applications remained down for another 2 weeks.
Uganda could face a second internet shutdown, however, the reasons behind the shutdown on Wednesday remain unclear and whether it will be a complete internet shutdown or just cutting off social media applications. It is important to note that Facebook has never been restored since its shutdown with other applications as the government has responded before that it is engaging in talks with the company to see how to work better.
More details to follow as the story develops
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