Facebook told the AP that the global platform took down users promoting Museveni because the campaign “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 than they were. Given the impending election in Uganda, we moved quickly to investigate and take down this network.”
The censorship, however, prompted Museveni to implement a ban on all big tech operations in the African country as its voters head to the polls, concluding a campaign described by Reuters as wrought with intimidation and “marred by brutal crackdowns on opposition rallies that have left scores dead.”
NetBlocks told Reuters its analysis showed that Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Skype, Snapchat, Viber, and Google Play were among a long list of online platforms that were down.
Twitter, which joined Facebook and Instagram to permanently ban President Donald Trump from its platform last week, condemned the censorship on Tuesday.
Uganda Just Nuked Facebook And Twitter For Election Interference, And Twitter Is Having A Meltdown
The president of Uganda temporarily banned Facebook and Twitter from the country this week in the final hours leading up to elections on Thursday.
thefederalist.com