KAMPALA, Uganda—Ugandan officials are pushing to ban internet pornography, an initiative they say is modeled after like measures in Muslim-dominated regions.
While Uganda’s population is primarily Catholic or Anglican, its government is considered to be just as repressive as those of Shia and Sunni-dominated Muslim countries. For example, Uganda implemented laws that legalize the use of the death penalty for individuals caught engaging in same-sex and LGBTQ relations. According to a report by local outlet The Daily Monitor, ultraconservative members of the unicameral Parliament of Uganda are likely to press the Ugandan Ministry of Information, Communications Technology, and National Guidance to liaise with other agencies to officially block all pornography sites to protect children from sexually explicit material. (As a pertinent point of interest, the Monitor is one of the only independent news publications challenging the current autocratic “presidency” of Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.)
“Our children are exposed to cartoons of violence, and our teens are exposed to pornography. In Muslim countries, pornography is blocked. Tell me how much we can lose as an economy if we block pornographic sites in the country. Pornography is killing us,” said Thomas Tayebwa, the deputy speaker of the Parliament, during a “high-level policymaker’s engagement on financing for young people” last Wednesday, reports Pulse Uganda. Addressing Information Minister Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, Tayebwa asked, “Why aren’t you blocking pornography? What value is it adding to us as a nation, apart from destroying the model family? What are we getting out of it?”
Uganda previously had a ban on pornography that was quashed in 2021 due to pressure from women’s rights organizations from across the country and the globe. Al Jazeera categorized the law, which was passed in 2014, as a so-called “anti-miniskirt law.” Uganda’s constitutional court scrapped the law because it led to women getting harassed and attacked in public for wearing certain clothes, including miniskirts.
The court ruled that the law was “inconsistent with or in contravention of the constitution of the Republic of Uganda.” Justice Frederick Egonda-Ntende said the “Anti-Pornography Act [is] hereby declared null and void.” Despite the law being gutted for violations of basic human rights, the government's new drive for another such measure comes in the tinge of a child protection statute reminiscent of similar bans on pornography being pushed by far-right religious groups in the United States. In fact, an investigation published by Open Democracy earlier this month found that two U.S. Christian groups were tied to the extremely draconian anti-homosexuality law mentioned above, also known as the “kill the gays” law. Some of these groups are classified by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center as religious or general hate groups. In a recent news media interview for Democracy Now, Ugandan rights activist Pepe Onziema blamed America's Christian conservative movement for becoming “exporters of hate.”
Uganda also has a terrible track record with internet censorship. The current initiative to ban adult websites would require internet service providers in the country to block access to them. Watchdog group Freedom House rates Uganda as “not free.” Museveni, notes the organization, has ruled Uganda “through patronage, the manipulation of state resources, intimidation by security forces, and politicized prosecutions of opposition leaders.” The U.S. State Department says that Uganda has “significant human rights issues,” which include extreme actions of LGBTQ discrimination and censorship.
