Overview
- Authorities cut internet access and limited mobile services ahead of the presidential vote, citing misinformation and electoral risks.
- Appfigures data shows Bitchat as the top free app on Uganda’s Apple and Google stores, with VPNs also climbing the charts.
- Apptopia estimates more than 28,000 installs in Uganda this year, nearly quadrupling the previous two months combined, and notes a usage jump in Iran during web crackdowns.
- Uganda’s communications regulator previously denied plans for a shutdown and claimed the app could be disabled, while a developer known as Calle argued its decentralized design complicates takedowns and reported internal figures of about 400,000 downloads.
- Opposition leader Bobi Wine urged supporters to install the tool ahead of polling, and this marks the country’s third pre-election internet cutoff.