In a petition filed on February 12, 2021, the Unwanted Witness wants the court to among other orders, restrain the government of Uganda and internet service providers from future arbitrary and unjustified internet shutdowns
According to Chris Kalema, the lead Technologist at Unwanted Witness, the Civil society is concerned about how the prolonged social media restriction is driving Ugandans to use VPNs which come with a lot of data manipulation risks.
If Internet shutdowns are used as a blunt-force means of blocking access locally to a specific service or application, access to other unrelated services may also be impacted as collateral damage.
When a country like Uganda is aiming at becoming a middle income economy and wants to anchor the growth on its information and communication sector, Internet shutdowns send all the wrong signals to investors and consumers.