Now Facebook and Twitter blocked in Uganda
Social Networks in Uganda are gradually being blocked as a result of the graceful coverage of the current violence rocking most parts of city and major towns.
Two giant mobile and Internet Service Providers, Warid Uganda Ltd and Uganda Telecom Ltd (UTL) have both blocked two of the world’s largest social networks- facebook and twitter.
Facebook: 'Server not found'
Several sources Echwalu Photography talked to claim that UCC instructed the above Inter Service Providers (ISP) to block facebook and twitter Internet Protocol (IP) address.
UCC however denies ever sending out such a directive, bending the blame rather to the ministry of ICT.
“We have not instructed anyone to block any social network,” Isaac Kalembe, UCC’s public relations officer noted. “Maybe it’s the ministry to ICT.”
Twitter page showing 'server not found'
Warid Uganda denied blocking any social network insisting that they too are facing the same dilemma being faced by their customers.
Uganda's Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leader Kizza Besigye is arrested by anti-riot policemen at the Kasangati suburb of the capital Kampala yesterday
“No no, it is not we; it seems it is the government that has blocked the service. Even us we are crying like you,” a Warid Field Engineer who requested his name be to be omitted because he is not authorised to speak to the media said.
Social networks have tremendously grown in Uganda since the turn of the century where facebook, twitter and blogs have been used as an avenue to discuss both developmental and passive issues.
A civilian takes care of another injured by a teargas canister during the walk to work protest in Kasangati suburb of the capital, Kampala by opposition leader for Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Kizza Besigye on April 15, 2011
A recent survey by Google Zeitgeist, a tool that provides insight into internet trends places facebook as the second most popular website in Uganda after Google with over a million Ugandans already subscribed to the network.
Patients were evacuated in critical conditions after police fired teargas at a health centre in Kasangati suburb of the capital, Kampala during a walk to work protest by opposition leader for Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Kizza Besigye on April 15, 2011
Faceook and Twitter for example were widely used during the February 18 presidential polls where media houses, citizen journalists and social network fanatics circulated up-to-date information on the election results, violence among others.
A protester injured by a teargas canister during the walk to work protest in Kasangati suburb of the capital, Kampala by opposition leader for Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Kizza Besigye on April 15, 2011
The trend has continued after the elections where twitter and facebook users have continued to change and share their status with other fellow users in the current ‘walk to work’ protests against the rising food and fuel prices in the country.
*Twitter is slowly coming back but facebook still remains blocked*
Shadows are cast of curious supporters eager to have a look at opposition leader, Kizza Besigye who was standing inside a trench after being stopped from walking to work as he continues to protest the rising food and fuel on April 15, 2011
Edward Echwalu - Documentary Photographer 
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