Facebook pages associated with seven Uganda-based news websites were removed for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour on 8 January, six days before the country’s presidential elections. Journalists, editors, and founders of the websites were included in the large network that Facebook linked to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology’s Government Citizen Interaction Centre (GCIC). In total, the corresponding Facebook pages of the seven websites had more than 119,000 total followers.
Two of the linked websites, gorillanationug.com and pfu.co.ug, were inaccessible. Five of the other websites –
The Niles Wires,
, Kampala Times, Kampala Post, and
The Ugandan – presented as news websites. Three of these websites copied content directly from the official website of the governing party, National Resistance Movement (NRM), presenting the content as news. Opinion pieces that were vehemently anti-opposition leader Bobi Wine were also lifted, without at
On January 8, 2020, Facebook removed 32 pages, 220 user accounts, 59 groups, and 139 Instagram profiles working to promote Ugandan president and National Resistance Movement (NRM) leader Yoweri Museveni. The accounts of at least six government employees and two PR firms were involved in the network taken down by Facebook for using fake and duplicate accounts and misleading pages to target public debate ahead of the 14 January presidential election.
According to a Facebook statement, they removed the assets “for violating our policy against government interference, which is coordinated inauthentic behaviour on behalf of a government entity. This network originated in Uganda and targeted domestic audiences.”