In the lead-up to the 2021 elections, Facebook shut down a network of social media accounts linked to the ministry of Information and Communications Technology, reported the Daily Monitor.
The regime-affiliated accounts, according to Facebook, were engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behaviour (CIB) to target public debate ahead of the election.”
Facebook describes CIB as “groups of pages or people working together to mislead others about who they are or what they are doing.” In short, CIB is a highbrow term for lowbrow deceit.
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) regime took offense at being caught being themselves; they accused the internet giant of meddling in Uganda’s affairs. President Yoweri Museveni bristled that his Uganda could do without Facebook.
Besides, Museveni noted, Facebook had presented us with an opportunity – his regime would usher in the age of the Ugandan version of Facebook. Foras, we wait.
The president deemed Facebook’s actions autocratic while deftly sidestepping Facebook’s reasons for removing the NRM accounts. Huffing and puffing in analog, Museveni blew Facebook down, forcing many Ugandans into the convenient arms of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
In December 2022, Museveni addressed the ongoing blockade of Facebook. Flexing his revolutionary muscles, he stressed, “Facebook are arrogant. They were being used to attack us. When our own people tried to answer back, they shut us.
It has been two years since Facebook was chased out of Uganda. When I checked, boda bodas and taxis were still moving [in absence of Facebook]; even matooke and milk were still coming. I hope Facebook now knows who is in charge of Uganda! When they stop playing games, we shall open them.”
Thus, the games continue – with colossal Facebook unaware that it is in a staring contest with a paltry Uganda. Against that backdrop of pretending Facebook will blink first in this comically disproportionate staring contest, Ugandans on Twitter like the NRM social media accounts are using social media to shape public discourse.
Armed with catchy hashtags and mouthy followers, Ugandans online boldly demand to speak to the manager of Uganda. Even with threats of the Computer Misuse Act and internet shutdowns, Ugandans online are another brand altogether – abrasive, packed with fiery quips and colorful insults.
During the Covid-19 national lockdowns, the president took to addressing the nation quite frequently. One Ugandan netizen joked that the president had fallen prey to the Ugandan custom of ‘talking talking.’ Online, the brazen cheek of the bazzukulu is loud and proud.
Today, the bazzukulu have taken the online space to greater heights – harnessing it as a space where they can take on their leaders without that mythical Ugandan politeness. Social media forces reality into the faces of our leaders, away from the safety of their inflated self- worth and privilege.
As the civic space continually shrinks for those who disagree with the NRM version of events, social media provides a space beyond the reach of despots and sycophants who see criticism as disloyalty.
Online, Ugandans are demanding accountability from their leaders in ways that would quickly send them to jail if they physically displayed such patriotic fervor.
On April 21, a video of the latest episode of police brutality trended. In the video, police officers rain kicks, kiboko and blows on the opposition parliamentarian Suzan Nakaziba Mugabi and the Buvuma district speaker Gad Daniel Onyango for attempting to hold a belated Women’s day celebration.
The two ended up in hospital. The police have denied assaulting Mugabi and Onyango, claiming the event did not have police clearance. The police further claim they dispersed Mugabi’s event with “required minimum force,” Daily Monitor reported.
Meanwhile, the First Son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba with vast state resources at his tweeting fingertips, publicly organizes and mobilizes merrily across the country presenting himself as the answer to Uganda’s political transition. Perhaps the police do not violently disperse his rallies because they have their hands full, brutalizing dissent.
With the teargas, live bullets, torture, imprisonment, and/or death rendering freedom of assembly for the rest of us, a deadly encounter – dissent has found sanctuary online.
From the online takedown of corruption and extortion at Entebbe airport to the undressing of the city authorities over Kampala’s unapologetically potholed roads to exposing the dire state of the health care in Uganda, this is the citizen-led steady progress the NRM did not envision.
Satirist Jim Spire Ssentongo, who is spearheading the latest online takedowns, is headlining innovative ways to demand accountability. Extraordinarily, no blood, teargas canisters or bullets have been harmed in these online takedowns.
For the regime sycophants who hypocritically dismiss the power of these online spaces by branding them unpatriotic, they should pay closer attention to the burgeoning number of followers of General Kainerugaba’s Twitter account – things in the online world are looking up for Kainerugaba.
If all else fails seeing as he is firmly standing on sinking sand, he can always take up a career in outlandish tweeting and waving at crowds.
The online streets are thriving.
smugmountain@gmail.com
The writer is a tayaad muzzukulu.
Source: The Observer
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