The drama between the Ugandan government through the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and the search giant Google is just getting started. The Communication head and Public Affairs for Africa at Google, Dorothy Ooko has said “it is very hard to just have a channel removed due to a government request,” according to independent. This was Google’s response to UCC after the regulator urged it to remove 14 channels from its YouTube platform.
This doesn’t divert much from our recent analysis where we clearly stated that some lawyers we spoke to confirmed that government is better off going after the owners of these individual channels and prosecute them in the local courts of law then use that judgment as a basis for YouTube to help them block those channels. But if they leave it for YouTube to decide the fate of the channels, UCC may not win this.
In the letter to Google on the 9th November 2020, UCC claimed that these channels contain extremist or anarchic messages including messages likely to incite violence against sections of the public on account of their tribe and political opinions. The government believes that these channels may compromise national security and cause economic sabotage.
UCC claims that these channels were used to mobilize the recent November riots that resulted in the loss of lives and property in Uganda. UCC recently requested all bloggers who broadcast on any social media channel to register with it, but this never made sense to most bloggers since UCC doesn’t control or have any powers to regulate the likes of Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.
Dorothy Ooko has said that for YouTube channels to be removed the governments have to submit court orders. “We always follow local law, but it would have to be a valid court order. The letters just show what the UCC submitted to the Embassy; they are not court orders,” she said.
ALSO READ: How Google will evaluate UCC’s request to block opposition owned Ugandan YouTube channels
There is no doubt that the regulator’s request to have the 14 channels removed from YouTube in the middle of the 2021 presidential campaign in which Bobi Wine is mostly using online platforms has been viewed as government’s move to limit online space for the musician turned politician, according to lawyers who spoke to the independent.
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