MTN Uganda has today clarified on its stand with orders to block Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, Tiktok, and all over the top (OTT) services in the country. This shines with hours left to the 2021 general elections where Presidential and Members of Parliament (MPs) will be elected for new terms in office.
According to MTN Uganda, the telco and other operators in the country received an order from the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) directing them to immediately block HTTP traffic to all top social media sites.
In this fashion, VPNs have since grown in popularity with a bunch of netizens searching for new ways of accessing social media sites without falling prey to any government restrictions pounded on telcos. More so, the existence of OTT (social media) tax already played a benchmark role for every netizen to have a free VPN installed on their Smartphone.
Well, as per the MTN Statement, the telco will engage with relevant stakeholders to limit the duration of service disruption in compliance with global digital human rights which allow each and every human to have equal access to Internet services without fear or favor.
MTN Uganda informs its esteemed customers and other stakeholders that National Telecommunication Operators in the country, have received a directive from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to immediately suspend access and use, direct or otherwise of all social media platforms and online messaging applications over the network until further notice.
MTN Uganda has, in compliance with its National Telecommunications Operator License and in accordance with MTN’s group-wide Digital Human Rights due diligence framework implemented the directive.
MTN Uganda will continue engaging with the relevant stakeholders to limit the scope and duration of the service disruption.
The MTN Statement read
Accordingly, the disruption of internet services is expected to go on until elections are over by 15th January 2021. For now, no Ugandan can access Facebook, Twitter, nor any Instant Messaging platform like WhatsApp, Telegram, and many others due to the current restrictions banning service usage.