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.

Comments

Survival of the fittest

[freshlimesoda]

..And internet always finds a way

Yeah, they may have their social media, so what

[fustakrakich]

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.