Uganda’s social media arena has been filled with lots of news from several unverified sources, and the govt is reportedly taking steps to curb the spread of fake news, propaganda, and rumors.
Govt is muting a bill that is supposed to fight such named “Prevention of rumors, propaganda and fake news” which has been gazetted in volume 29 CIV dated 10th February 2021.
The Object of the bill is to provide prevention of initiation, sharing, and /or distribution of rumors, anti-government propaganda, and related material in private and public spaces on and offline. The leaked bill prohibits “The duties and responsibilities of heads of families, religious leaders, academic staff like teachers and lectures, private company managers, celebrities and all other people from in positions of leadership and influence in society to avoid hate speech” the statement read it part.
All the above-mentioned categories of people should resist on writing on social media or any other electronic correspondence that tarnishes the image of elected representatives, leaders, presidential appointees, and their families.
This comes after twitter and Facebook is filled with negative comments against the pro-NRM bloggers. However according to Facebook’s CIB report for January, the social media giant removed 220 Accounts, 32 Pages, 59 Groups and 139 Instagram accounts that originated in Uganda and targeted domestic audiences.
ALSO READ: Facebook explains why it blocked pro-NRM blog accounts prior to general elections
In their investigations, Facebook which also owns WhatsApp, Instagram found found links to the Government Citizens Interaction Center at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology in Uganda. They found this network after reviewing information about a portion of its activity shared with them by researchers at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab. Given the impending election was was due in Uganda in Uganda at the time. Once they completed their investigation, they moved quickly to take down this network in early January.
If this “Prevention of rumors, propaganda and fake news” is turned into law, the govt expects to bring sanity back into the use of social media in Uganda.
Update:
Some tweets have come out to clarify that this rumor may not be true after all.
