A Harvard University student has sued Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for blocking him on Twitter.
Mr Hillary Innocent Seguya Taylor also sued spokesperson Ofwono Opondo and the police Chief Political Commissar Asan Kasingye, saying they too have blocked him from accessing their official Twitter handles.
In his law suit filed before the High Court in Uganda’s capital Kampala, Mr Seguya states that he is a Ugandan citizen pursuing a Master’s degree in International Relations.
He says that the President and the two officials use their Twitter handles as public forums to disseminate information about activities of their public offices in their official capacities and to get feedback from citizens, and therefore blocking him is “illegal, improper and irrational”.
Mr Seguya says that as a citizen living abroad, he is only able to get information relating to his country’s governance and to communicate to the respective officers through social media.
“That before being blocked, I used the same Twitter social media platform handles to communicate my views, dismays and suggestions to the respective officers,” Mr Seguya states.
“The effect of blocking me from the respective Twitter accounts is that I am now not capable of following and viewing the Tweets on their respective Twitter social media platform handles and hence not capable of contacting, replying, liking, tagging, retweeting and knowing the public information thereon or commenting on the same.”
He asserts that the blocking of his Twitter handle, @HillaryTaylorVI, from accessing the respective three handles on July 20, 30 and August 8, was done without giving him notice.
Mr Seguya is now seeking an order to be unblocked by the three Twitter accounts, and is also seeking general damages for the inconvenience caused.
The student appointed his lawyer Male Mabirizi to represent him as he is not in the country.
NMG
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