Uganda Communications Commission has said it will go for those who are promoting obscene and vulgar content on social media platforms.
Towards the end of last year, UCC launched a campaign targeting vulgar content , starting with entertainment shows, concerts, plays and media houses.
UCC has mostly targeted online platforms which show this content, deemed unfit for public consumption.
Addressing stakeholders in Kampala on Friday, UCC Executive Director, Nyombi Thembo said they are extending the crackdown to individuals promoting vulgar content on their individual platforms.
“We cant sit and keep silent when we see things go wrong. As a commission we have decided to implement laws to the latter. Our friends of online channels who think we don’t have capacity and are out of reach, I want to tell you that everything that is technological where there is a key to open, , there is also a key to close .Don’t think you will stay in that comfort zone forever,” Nyombi Thembo said.
He said globally, there is an ongoing conversation for big tech companies to comply with laws in individual countries where they operate, noting that UCC is going to start implementing Ugandan laws in this regard.
“If we see signals and don’t act, we will next time see people coming nude in public performances but we cant allow it continue. Biblically we know generations can be destroyed when they go astray to levels we now see us heading to. Like day follows night, you will see some empires collapse because of this kind of degeneration. Africa has survived all kinds of assaults including salve trade because of our culture and indigenous knowledge of valuing our morals. Somebody can take away everything from us but not body should tamper with our culture norms, especially when it comes to morals,”Nyombi Thembo said.
“We cant sit and keep silent when we see things go wrong. As a commission we have decided to implement laws to the latter.”
Many people have in the past said UCC doesn’t have capacity to enforce the laws but Nyombi thinks otherwise
“ Capacity is not built one day like python which swallows its meal whole. We eat piece by piece like lions or tigers. We eat small piece by piece but finish prey to the bone. We might not have capacity to do it 100% but we will get there by taking right step in right direction.”
“Some of the actors are saying we don’t have capacity to control them because they are on YouTube, Whats App and TikTok but in my indigenous knowledge, we have saying that a leopard didn’t know how to kill until people advised it. Since then, the leopard learnt how to kill.”
The development comes against the backdrop of the banning of TikTok by the US government from their territory.
