Besigye condemns Museveni for bragging over closing Facebook

Kizza Besigye has said President Yoweri Museveni should not be proud that Facebook has been inaccessible in Uganda, for some, for two years. 

The leader of the People’s Front for Transition (PFT) Dr Kizza Besigye noted that contrary to the president’s boasts, closing Facebook in Uganda has hurt the country in terms of revenue.

The four-time presidential candidate said as president Museveni brags regarding the closure of Facebook in Uganda, Mark Zuckerberg’s revenue for 2021 grew to $117 billion from $86 billion of 2020.

Zuckerberg is the owner of this social media giant.

Besigye added that Uganda’s  2021 GDP was only $40 billion in comparison. 

“Uganda’s many businesses that used Facebook for advertising and promoting their businesses in various other ways have suffered from Facebook closure,” said Besigye in a brief comment regarding the matter.

Besigye said that in the meantime Ugand is borrowing from “money lenders” to survive, and Museveni was even forced to travel to the USA  to “beg” for help.

“(It is) very annoying that the country continues to pay heavily to satisfy the ego of its decadent leader,“ he said.

Recently, Museveni returned from the US where he had gone to attend the US-Africa summit which covered a number of issues including peace and security among others.

While speaking to the media at the State Lodge in Nakasero on Friday, Museveni said Uganda will only allow Facebook to reopen only if the social media giant stops “playing games.”

“I hope now facebook knows who is in charge of Uganda. If they stop playing games, we shall open up,” Museveni said, adding that Facebook was being used to attack the government.

He however said that if Facebook realises its mistake, the government will reopen it.

In the drive to the 2021 general election, the government blocked Facebook after the social media giant deleted hundreds of accounts of National Resistance Movement (NRM) supporters it suspected to be fake. 

There have been several attempts to negotiate the unblocking of Facebook, but without tangible results. Facebook refused to comply with the government demands to restore deleted accounts.

Most Ugandans using Facebook were greatly affected by the decision taken by the government to block the site and they have since resorted to using virtual private network (VPN) applications to be able to access the platform.

Speaking to Daily Monitor recently, Irene Kaggwa, the UCC executive director said the negotiations with Facebook need to be handled on a continental level.

“Many of us have recommended that we have to approach them (Facebook) as a continent. When we speak to Facebook as Africa, Facebook will be keener to listen,” he said.

In this financial year, the government introduced taxes on social media platforms. Several Members of Parliament wondered how the government would be able to tax a social media platform that it banned in the country.

Prior to its suspension by the government, Facebook was the most used social media platform in Uganda. Since then, many users have since quit or use Virtual Private Networks to access the platform.