Uganda: Facebook pulls a government-linked network to try to influence public debate ahead of elections

Madrid 11 one. 2021 (Europa Press) –

The social network, Facebook, announced today, Monday, the withdrawal of a series of accounts linked to the Ugandan government that participated in a disinformation campaign to influence “public debate” in the face of the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for next Thursday in Africa. country.

A Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement sent to Europe Press that “a network of accounts and pages that were involved in coordinating false behavior has been eliminated in Uganda,” before adding that they are “linked to the interaction center with Ugandan citizens, the Ministry of Information.”

“They used fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people’s content, pretend as users, and post posts in groups to make them look more popular than they were,” he said. He concluded by saying: “In front of the upcoming elections in Uganda, we are moving quickly to investigate and withdraw this network.”

The elections will take place in a particularly tense context due to the increasing repression against the opposition and the killing of more than 50 people in November due to the action of security forces against the demonstrators after the arrest of the main opposition candidate, Robert Kyagolani, during the campaign event.

Thus, last week, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, expressed the commission’s “deep concern” about the “deteriorating” human rights situation in the country before the elections.

Kyagolani, better known as “Bobby Wayne”, will be the main contender for the incumbent president, Yoweri Museveni, who has led the country since 1986 and who will try to achieve a sixth term after a series of constitutional amendments so he can go. To the polls.