Facebook Shuts Down Accounts of Senior Ugandan Officials

Ugandans are set to go to the polls on 14 January to elect the country’s next president, as well as parliament and local government representatives.

Facebook said on Monday that it had shut down accounts belonging to Ugandan government officials accused of seeking to manipulate the public debate ahead of the Thursday elections.

"This month, we removed a network of accounts and pages in Uganda that engaged in CIB (Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour) to target public debate ahead of the election," Facebook's head of communication for sub-Saharan Africa, Kezia Anim-Addo, said in an email.

The election campaign period in the country is said to have been marked by the use of violence against supporters of the opposition.

In mid-December, Amnesty International called on Uganda to put a stop to alleged human rights violations ahead of the upcoming general and presidential elections.

The 14 January election will see President Yoweri Museveni, who has governed the country since 1986, pitted against several rivals, including his main one, singer Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, who was arrested and then released in November for an alleged violation of Uganda’s COVID-19 rules.