Uganda President accuses Facebook of interference, alleges 'outside support' for Bobi Wine

Ugandan official and presidential spokesman Don Wanyama accused Facebook of interfering in the country's election. This happened after several accounts that were linked to President Yoweri Museveni’s campaign were removed for alleged inauthentic behaviour. According to AP reports, Wanyama said, "Facebook is interfering in the electoral process of Uganda. If people wanted to have evidence of outside interference, now they have it."

He also said that Facebook’s action was evidence of what the authorities of Uganda see as outside support of Bobi Wine. In a statement emailed to AP, Facebook said that a network of accounts and pages "used fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people’s content, impersonate users, re-share posts in groups to make them appear more popular than they were. Given the impending election in Uganda, we moved quickly to investigate and take down this network." The statement also added that the network is linked to Uganda’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. 

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'Outside support'

Wanyama accused Facebook of blocking the accounts of Museveni’s mobilisers, specifically those who use the local Luganda language. Blocked accounts mostly include those who campaigned against presidential challenger Bobi Wine. The popular musician turned politician was also arrested with his campaign team while travelling in an island region outside the capital recently. He has been arrested many times previously and has also been accused of disrupting public order.

Wine supporters, bloggers and several journalists were also arrested during the operation. An official from Wine's National Unity Platform (NUP) said the military had tried to "usurp the powers of the people." 

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(Image Credits: AP/Unsplash)