Slashdot Mirror
How Ugandans Overturned an Election-Day Blackout of Social Media Apps (vice.com)
tedlistens writes: When Ugandans went to the polls last Thursday in presidential and parliamentary elections, they participated in the most heavily-contested political battle since multiparty democracy began in 2005. As reports swirled of vote buying and excessive use of force by the police on opposition protesters, it was the attempt to block access to Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and mobile phone-based money services that produced the loudest reactions. In a country with the youngest population in the world, where 77 percent of the population is under 30 years of age, mobile apps have become vital to communication and commerce. During the three-day ban, an estimated 1.5 million citizens, or 15 percent of the internet-using populace, downloaded VPN software and Tor to reroute their internet connections and return to social media, where discussion about the election continued to rage.
..And internet always finds a way
I come to Slashdot only to read sigs. One you are reading is mine.
If Trump is elected, Americans will have to encrypt their communication if they want to trash talk the president.
Its right next door to Rwanda you remember the place that attempted to commit genocide a few years back? That one.
Uganda be kidding me
They're not exactly a liberal bunch. Even with all the fraud, the incumbents still have a lot of support.
Also it looks like there was lots of help from the Department of State, so let's not get all excited about this being a 'grassroots' effort or anything.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Anyone remember who first said "The Internet interprets censorship as a fault and routes around it" or something to that effect?
This is a perfect example.
What's so bad that the incumbents decided it was better to piss everyone off by banning social media than let them talk about it?
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
If you look at the map, an awful lot of African countries have long straight borders that look like they were created by someone in London or Paris with no thought for the realities on the ground.
It's entirely possible that I don't really understand Africa either, but I've often thought that the best thing would be to scrap every country on the continent, and divide the place up along ethnic lines. I know that would hardly be trouble free, but there might at least a chance for some sort of peace in the place.
his critics now charge that Museveni manipulates the military to keep a firm grip on power.
Yeah, well, it's Africa
Besigye, a retired army colonel
So probably no better than the last guy
etc.
And I very much doubt they all deleted their VPN/TOR software on the day after election, either.
The tighter you clench your fist, the more sand disappears through your fingers.
if we stick to facts as opposed to hype, we learn that while use of methods to go round the blocked media increased, it did not change much. nor should it.
same thing happened after the so called 'arab spring', all those stories about westernized arab liberals chasing away mubarak using social media. (some western media even calling it the twitter revolution.) then parties representing them got very little votes, while muslim brotherhood and other islamist parties won big. and then military took back the power.
westerners have highly exaggerated notion of power of media, in their own countries and elsewhere. in their minds success of unwanted politicians, whether they be foreign 'dictators', or local right/left wingers, are due mainly to propaganda for them, and/or censorship of opponents, through media. not so.
people and issues are more complex than that.
Teaching monkey see, monkey do to the first monkey must have taken much patience.
"How often do you have election?"
"Evely day."
air jordan pas cher management of both hands, to create a number of new mainstream media, built a few have a strong public trust and communication, in line with modern international communication and social and political needs of the new media group is the core of the. media integration is an old topic, many years of upheaval. From the early start to reform newspapers radio and television group to test the water, whether it is confined to the industry a "vertical" or "horizontal" across the industry, keen to practice China media has never stopped the pace of exploration. Practice has proved that relying on the old road new shoes, the traditional media is very difficult to get out of the new media. In order to promote the integration of traditional media and new media, media organizations and management must first out of conservative thinking, from the "new start" - "new" in consciousness and concept, attitude and "new" in "new" in management, technology and practice. In addition,chaussure nike air jordan pas cher it must focus on the development of the unity of knowledge, promote and force the tension between old and new, to leave room for the pioneer, reserved for the later approach.
It is the Ugandans who hold these views, but thanks for projecting. If you don't like Africans because they don't agree with white liberal political views then it's you who are the bigot. Why don't we all ask the indigenous people what they think about you and your racist opinions?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
The summary suggests that these elections democratic, when in reality they were the most blatantly rigged elections in the country's history.
Opposition leaders were repeatedly arrested, often denied the ability to hold rallies, and had their offices raided by the government on multiple occasions. There were even mysterious disappearances of opposition campaign staff: http://www.observer.ug/news-he...
On election day, voting materials in Kampala -- the opposition stronghold -- did not show up at polling stations until an hour before polling was scheduled to close. Social media was deliberately blocked, and even Mobile Money was shut down in order to undermine the oppositions ability to pay fuel and food costs for its polling station workers: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02...
Al Jazeera covered an incident where opposition claimed to have found a vote rigging center in Nuguru, a Kampala suburb. When the opposition showed up with cameras, and knocked on the gate, two men jumped over the fence and ran. After being apprehended, they turned out to be carrying police issue guns and other equipment. Police then swiftly arrived and arrested everyone for attempted to trespass on a government intelligence facility: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/...
Also: I don't know where this number of VPN downloads comes from. I see it everywhere, and have for days, yet nobody can cite a source for it, and every journalist I know has failed to independently verify it. While it is true (and great news) that a very significant number of people in Uganda quickly managed to work around the blockade, I would view the download figures with extreme skepticism.
it was the attempt to block access to Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and mobile phone-based money services that produced the loudest reactions.
You don't have a fucking clue. People rioted and set up burning roadblocks in the streets because they had no ballot papers and their favorite candidate got arrested, not because they couldn't access Facebook.
There is a great story in all of this about people getting around censorship, but don't spread bullshit.
It is the Ugandans who hold these views, but thanks for projecting. If you don't like Africans because they don't agree with white liberal political views then it's you who are the bigot. Why don't we all ask the indigenous people what they think about you and your racist opinions?
Oh, GP's logical failings don't rule out the Ugandans being bigots.
The fundamental problem the GP has is that he's actually a racist - he holds white Christians to different and higher standards than he holds black Muslims to.
Oh fuck off already. You obviously think it is a-okay that they hold those views, otherwise you wouldn't have railed against someone who denounced them. And playing the "but you're the real bigot" card is a tacit admission of having no defense.
"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
You can disagree, but you can't write off a whole nation as bigoted because they don't agree with you. There are plenty of things that are OK in other cultures that you would balk at, and they don't call you a bigot for it.
One of my ISP's sounded the alarm one day before elections. They were told it's a national emergency and were required to block "all social media". All social media was ambiguous and despite efforts we never got the official communication - but whatsapp, facebook, twitter were specified as the main ones. They also received no notification to restore services but decided to anyways when one of the major telcos did. I see the same president still prevails so oppression still works well for raping a nation. For any Ugandans, A simple VPN would have bypassed the blocks. I like tunnelbear for the cool pictures of bears and it's free for a limited amount of data.