State Privatisation and Investment Minister Evelyn Anite has brokered a deal that will in a few months have China help Uganda government fight cyber crimes committed through different social media platforms such as WhatsApp and other internet enabled channels.
Hon. Anite who alongside Trade minister Micheal Werikhe is leading a delegation in China has revealed details of preliminary agreements reached with China National Electronics Import and Export Corp (CEIEC) in Beijing yesterday.
China has committed to build the capacity of Uganda Communications Commisison, Police amd Ministry of Internal Affairs to control and monitor Ugandans on social media.
“We can’t hide our heads in the sand. Criminals are using social media with impunity,” Hon. Anite told her Chinese host and CEIEC vice president Zhou Xin. They assured her they have the capacity to offer advanced national defense electronics and all-round supporting services for Uganda.
Anite and her group are in China to shop for technology and investor for technology to proof local internet use, construct a factory for assembling cellphone handsets as well as a cement plant in Karamoja sub-region.
The Chinese government is known not to allow its people to have access to the uncensored global internet where they can easily communicate with each other and people from the rest of the world. Uganda, which experienced its second social media shut down in three months in the days before president Yoweri Museveni was sworn in for his controversial fifth term last May. The previous time Ugandans faced a social media shutdown was on election day in February 2016. People resorted to using virtual private networks to get round the restrictions to use Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.
