On 13/01/2021, Andy Ringsmuth <andy@andyring.com> wrote:
On Jan 13, 2021, at 3:39 PM, Alejandro Acosta <alejandroacostaalamo@gmail.com> wrote:
On 13/1/21 4:05 PM, Sean Donelan wrote:
The Uganda Communications Commission has issued a shutdown order for the operation of all Internet gateways in Uganda beginning January 13, 2021 until further notice.
I can't access the official Uganda Communications Commission website, but this appears to be a copy of the order
https://twitter.com/DougColtart/status/1349442878481846272/photo/1
So sad to read this. How is it possible to think this is good to anybody?.., ok, maybe to the very high politicians of the country, but no one else. Not less than 44 million people negative affected.
That's it.
Alejandro,
It is mildly interesting to see what Twitter itself has to say about it:
https://twitter.com/Policy/status/1349059275461685250
"Ahead of the Ugandan election, we're hearing reports that Internet service providers are being ordered to block social media and messaging apps.
We strongly condemn internet shutdowns – they are hugely harmful, violate basic human rights and the principles of the #OpenInternet.”
Oh, the jokes just write themselves…
-Andy
The more ironic they're making this announcement together with announcing the suspension of yet another set of accounts: "Earlier this week, in close coordination with our peers, we suspended a number of accounts targeting the election in Uganda. If we can attribute any of this activity to state-backed actors, we will disclose to our archive of information operations:" "Access to information and freedom of expression, including the public conversation on Twitter, is never more important than during democratic processes, particularly elections." Since Twitter's so keen on suspending accounts and removing context from the conversation flows, here's an archive of this announcement for posterity: https://archive.is/PTNx3 C.