It was confirmed. It was live. And it happened. Yes, the different and well known popular social media giant sites including the likes of Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and others remained inaccessible during the election day, and which is happening right now. According to the different news from the different media channels including televisions and radios, it is reported that the Uganda communication commission under the request of the Electoral commission blocked / shutdown those social networking sites for reasons they give.
This happened, and is still happening to me. When I work up on the 18th Feb 2016, yes I was able to see my last communications and messages which I hadn’t read for the past day. But guess what, all of my replies never went through, and nor did I receive any new messages from my friends.
At first, I thought that may be, this was something to do with my phone or interne connection, and which I proven to be wrong after I read different articles on the internet on the same, by other people.
What I read came out to be the fact since all of the social media Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and others remained blocked and inaccessible. But why did this happen? This is the message I got from MTN – “The UCC has directed MTN to disable all Social Media and Mobile Money Services due to a threat to Public order and safety..”
The UCC has directed MTN to disable all Social Media & Mobile Money services due to a threat to Public Order & Safety. This is the message MTN Uganda is sending to its subscribers. No wonder, one cannot transact and or access whatsapp. We don’t know when this will be restored. May be the same request was sent to other providers like Airtel, Mango etc