Social Media And Google Services Still Restricted In Uganda

The backlog of the 2021 General elections in Uganda is still on, as we now understand that social media and Google Services access is still restricted.

Subscriptions for Over The Top (OTT) Tax that covers Social Media use has become a thing of history as Ugandans at large have sought refuge in Virtual Private Networks.

Uganda Communications Commissions is understood to have ordered all Internet Service Providers to restrict and suspend Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram), VPNs, App stores, and Google Services. Skype, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams are among the services suspended. Google Drive, Google Docs, Sheets, Backups, Google Calendar, Adsense, Adwords, Data Studio, Analytics, are also restricted.

This week, Ugandans are waking up from an internet slumber put in place on the eve of general elections. Government Spokesperson Ofwono Opondo said in an interview that the internet was shut down because Ugandans were using it as a tool to organize riots to disrupt the prevalence of peace during elections.

Uganda has over 15 million users on the internet who account for a daily revenue of about UGX6.58 billion (approx. $1.78million).