Kampala, 11^th/03/2016; Finally, it has come true six months ago when the Unwanted Witness published an alert that flagged government’s plan to draft a new bill to deal with social media platforms that had become a “security” threat.

On Wednesday 9^th March 2016 Attorney General Fred Ruhindi tabled a new Bill titled: The Uganda Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2016, that seeks to give the executive arm of government outright powers to control communications in any way the sector minister deems fit.

According to one of the local dailies the Daily Monitor, the Minister for the Presidency, Mr Frank Tumwebaze, on Wednesday defended the proposed amendment as “innocuous” and insisted that “as a country we are not even an inch in regulating social media yet it’s necessary for citizen protection and security.” The minister, however, said the threat the country faces today is “irresponsible speech” that borders on genocide promotion, all as a result of unregulated platforms.”

If enacted, this law will be added on the long list of cyber laws targeting to control how citizens exercise their Internet Freedoms and Digital Rights. These include; Anti Terrorism Act, Regulation of Interception of Communications Act, Uganda Communication Commission Regulatory Act, the Computer Misuse Act, Anti Pornographic Act and Electronic Signatures Act among others.