After 28 days of restricted internet access, Uganda has finally reopened full access to the internet that was indefinitely switched off one day to the general election.
January 13th to 15th, 2021 will always be remembered as when there was absolutely no internet activity coming from Uganda because the government decided to completely shut it down, citing security reasons.
On Monday, January 18, 2021, the internet was restored in pieces, because social media sites remained blocked as the government sought to limit discussions of the general election results have gone on to be highly contested.
Since then, Ugandans, including government officials have been extensively reliant on using Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications on their devices so that they can access social media platforms.
Secondly, the average internet user had to incur extra data costs while using VPN, and thirdly, people who were locked out before getting the much-prized VPN apps have been off social media since then. This meant that if they were running any businesses online, they have been stalled for almost a month.
There is good news. Today, Wednesday, February 10, 2021, Peter Ogwang, the State Minister for Information, Communication Technology, and National Guidance has announced that internet has been fully restored and Ugandans are free to access all sites that had been previously blocked.
However, he called on social media users to use it constructively.
“Internet and social media services have been fully restored. We apologize for the inconveniences caused, but it was for the security of our country. Let us be constructive, not destructive consumers/users of social media,” Ogwang tweeted today.
