The recent passage of the Computer Misuse (Amendment) Bill of 2022 has sparked another round of debates and soul-searching about digital rights, particularly the freedom of expression in Uganda. The inception of the bill began early this year when Hon. Muhammad Nsereko an independent but National Resistance Movement (NRM) leaning Member of Parliament hinted at introducing the bill to combat fake and malicious information online. The bill was passed despite strong objections from opposition politicians and civil society, who warned that it would be used as a tool for digital censorship. Among others, the bill aims to deter misuse of online platforms by criminalizing the writing, sending, or sharing of what it terms as hateful, unsolicited, misleading, or malicious information online.
This is, by now, a familiar pattern of curtailing free expression and access to information in Uganda, as well as targeting critical voices online. It is not that misuse of online platforms does not exist; they obviously do, but we shouldn’t allow the state to exploit these vices as opportunities to clamp down on legitimate criticism. We saw this, for example, in 2019 with the Computer Misuse Act of 2011, when writer and activist, Dr. Stella Nyanzi, was charged with cyber harassment and later convicted of the same for “insulting” the president. Early this year, novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was charged with offensive communication under the same law for “insulting” the president’s son. In both cases, it is clear that Ugandans are heavily policed on social media and that the enforcement of the existing laws have been selectively applied to state critics or rather, that there is freedom of expression without a guarantee of freedom after expression.
Now, with the passing of the Computer Misuse (Amendment) Bill of 2022, it will act as a flexible tool for the state to worsen an already stifling environment for free expression online. Perhaps the most striking flaw in the bill concerns the failure to define some of the “vices” it intends to combat. For instance, Clause 5 introduces section 24A, which prohibits the sending or sharing of unsolicited information through a computer, but it does not define what constitutes “unsolicited” information. Furthermore, Clause 6 introduces section 26A, which prohibits the sending or sharing, or transmitting of any misleading or malicious information about or relating to any person through a computer. Again, the definitions of what amounts to “misleading” or “malicious” information are not provided. This of course gives rise to ambiguity that not only creates a risk of people’s opinions being misinterpreted but also opens opportunities for abuse, including enabling the state to use the bill as a tool of legal harassment to silence state critics, suppress minority opinions, or otherwise curtail free expression – basic human rights that are ostensibly protected in Uganda’s constitution.
Another strange development in the bill concerns the criminal sanctions prescribed; in particular, the hefty fines, lengthy jail terms of about seven years, and a ban from holding public office and loss of office for convicted offenders. This is likely to instill a climate of fear and breed self-censorship amongst critical voices and the political opposition, to name just a few.
Given the evidence, and the history of abuse, it is clear that the Ugandan state is weaponizing the law to pave the way for an even more repressive and coercive environment under the guise of ‘preventing misuse of online platforms.’ Laws like this must not be passed at the price of curtailing the public’s bedrock rights to free expression and association. Any such initiatives should be developed in close harmony with prevailing international human rights standards relating to freedom of expression, not used to merely entrench an abusive regime that now seems intent on consolidating its political power at all costs.
Bwambale Asiimwe Micheal is a human rights lawyer at the Refugee Law Project-Center for Forced Migrants, at Makerere University School of Law. Follow him on Twitter: @MicBwambale
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