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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.
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
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.
Possibly the best thing that could come out of Trump or Sanders becoming President would be the radical snipping of the 'Executive Privileged' virus that would ensue. The creeping power of the Executive Branch has grown for decades. I see Congress and the Courts snipping that stuff off instantly when the Trump or Sanders administration takes control. They can stay in charge of the Post Office and the Army. Lots of other stuff can go.
I have this dream of Office Furniture and Equipment companies going bankrupt worldwide because of the surplus auctions of equipment from closed buildings in Washington.
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.