By Mudasirr Govule
In January 2021, just before the country’s general elections, the Government of Uganda banned Facebook. This came after the platform deleted accounts it claims were linked to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and accused of spreading misinformation, manipulating public discourse, and promoting hate speech.
President Yoweri Museveni criticized Facebook’s actions as discriminatory and unfair, stressing that the platform had no right to interfere in Uganda’s internal affairs. The ban was, however, widely viewed as part of a broader effort to control information and limit opposition during the elections, which saw significant tension between the government and opposition groups.
The ban significantly impacted millions of Ugandan users. At that time, Uganda had approximately 18.15 million internet users, accounting for 45.9% of the population.
The platform was not only used as an information sharing platform but had become part of an e-commerce leaning economy – helping small and big businesses reach their clients with their products and services.
In order to keep up, many resorted to using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). A technology that allows users to create a secure and encrypted connection over the internet. It helps protect users’ privacy, security, and data while browsing the web by masking their IP address and rerouting their internet traffic through a remote server located in a different geographic location.
A report by Emerging Markets Today, indicates that by January 2021, there were approximately 3.236 million Facebook users in Uganda, accounting for 6% of the population. By December 2022, this number had decreased to about 2.226 million users, representing 4.1% of the population.
This represented just a 1.9% drop of Facebook users at the time – exhibiting that Ugandans continued to access the platform through the use of VPN. This workaround came with several challenges, such as higher data costs, technical issues for some users, and limited accessibility for those unfamiliar with VPN technology.
In January 2025, Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of Meta which is the mother company of Facebook said they won’t be using third party fact checkers again – citing that they have been politically biased in the process of fact checking.
They are introducing community notes. Just like X (formerly twitter) allowing users to collaboratively add context to tweets, providing additional information or clarifications.
This system is designed to combat misinformation by enabling the community to flag misleading or incomplete posts, offering corrections or more context. Users can vote on the quality of the notes, and if a note reaches enough support, it becomes visible to others. This crowdsourced approach was designed to improve the overall quality of information on the platform.
It is possible that the same fact checkers are the ones that might have caused the shutdown of accounts that were alleged politically manipulating Ugandans. Were they biased? Will all the accounts that were banned in that period be reactivated? Not just for the Ugandans, globally. This will be giving back power to the “people”.
The government of Uganda believes in its people and this could be a great opportunity to lift the ban and save Ugandans some shillings being spent on premium VPNs and high data costs associated with using VPNs. Much as the ban on Facebook affects Meta, it affects Ugandans the most.
The writer is a Multimedia and Development Communication Specialist
