Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube • Hacker News Board

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#391

Post by jimkleiber » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 7:22 PM UTC

max_ wrote: post #287

Ugandan here, to provide more context; This is clock work, every election period they shutdown social media & electronic payments. It happened in 2016[0] But when an "OTT" tax was imposed on social networks (Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Linkdin) in 2018[1]. Majority didn't want to pay an extra tax(required to use social media) on top of paying for internet. So majority learnt how to use vpns. As a result, t…

From what I can tell, my friends in UG with VPN can no longer access WhatsApp. It seems they may have also blocked the VPNs somehow.

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#392

Post by notsureaboutpg » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 8:46 PM UTC

Synaesthesia wrote: post #280

jhanschoo wrote: post #267

Can someone with more familiarity with Ugandan politics comment? My understanding is that outside developed states, lawful democracy can be very brittle especially in states containing multiple nations and tribes, and when there is a long history where the people tend to put their own nation and tribe before the others in the same state, leading to conflict. The rationale and measure seems to be a better evil if the…

Uganda is ruled by a virtual military dictatorship. There is substantial democratic opposition which is suppressed by the govt. It's quite an oppressive country, you see soldiers in black patrolling the streets on trucks.

That latter sentence is true in the "biggest democracy in the world" India as well. I think it's just a common feature in most countries...

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#393

Post by max_ » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:00 AM UTC

jimkleiber wrote: post #391

max_ wrote: post #287

Ugandan here, to provide more context; This is clock work, every election period they shutdown social media & electronic payments. It happened in 2016[0] But when an "OTT" tax was imposed on social networks (Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Linkdin) in 2018[1]. Majority didn't want to pay an extra tax(required to use social media) on top of paying for internet. So majority learnt how to use vpns. As a result, t…

From what I can tell, my friends in UG with VPN can no longer access WhatsApp. It seems they may have also blocked the VPNs somehow.

The entire internet was blocked. [0]

[0]:https://qz.com/africa/1957137/uganda-cuts-off-internet-ahead...

Re: Ugandan government blocks Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and YouTube

#394

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 » Fri, Jan 22, 2021, 12:13 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #383

ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that if I may ask? This was in direct response to the point on neo-imperialism and American foreign influence by the parent.

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't remember. Mostly we do that when a subthread goes too offtopic, especially when it makes the discussion more generic, which is a bad thing on HN [1]. But we might also do it as a pruning mechanism because the thread has become top-heavy and a subthread can stand on its own. We also do it when a comment is not really a reply to its parent, but was posted there for some other reason (u…

Oh it's an interesting pattern, thanks for the explanation!