In a blog post on the OpenNet Initiative blog, Rebekah Heacock notes that “most of sub-Saharan Africa has historically been free of technical filtering.” No more.
Uganda, at the insistence of its national police commissioner, has sent its three largest ISPs a memo requesting they begin blocking what they called “Tweeter” (presumably Twitter) and Facebook, in order to “eliminate the connection and sharing of information that incites the public.”
The last week has been rife with protests in the East African country and the leaders have no doubt seen how powerful protests can be as they have observed their North African neighbors.
They have made the mistake that others have made, including Egypt and Libya, that the tech is the issue. It’s not, of course. The fulcrum for the lever of disruption are the people. When they’re fed up, there’s trouble.
In this case, the Ugandan people have been protesting the abrupt rise in the prices of food and fuel in the face of such governmental purchases as a $720 Russian-made fighter jet. The street marches have been met by police violence.
The online expression of the protests is the hashtag #walktowork.
Thanks to Rassina | Kasubi tombs photo by notphilatall
