Uganda Accuses Facebook Of ‘Interference’ In Upcoming Elections

A Ugandan official accused Facebook of meddling in Uganda’s election after several accounts linked to the campaign of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni were removed for alleged inauthentic behaviour.

Presidential spokesman Don Wanyama told a news agency on Monday that Facebook’s action was evidence of what Ugandan authorities see as outside support of Bobi Wine, the leading opposition candidate in presidential elections scheduled for Thursday. Facebook is interfering in the electoral process of Uganda, he said. If people wanted to have the evidence of outside interference, now they have it. Responding to the allegations, in a statement e-mailed to the news agency, Facebook said it removed a network of accounts and pages that used fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people’s content, impersonate users, re-share posts in groups to make them appear more popular than they were. Given the impending election in Uganda, we moved quickly to investigate and take down this network.” Facebook has and the rest of other social media platforms have recently been receiving backlash for shows authoritarian tendencies.