A Havard student, Hillary Innocent Seguya Taylor, has dragged the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, government spokesman, Ofwono Opondo and the Police Chief, Asan Kasingye, to court for blocking him on Twitter.
According to East African, Taylor filed the lawsuit at the High Court in Uganda’s capital Kampala.
In the lawsuit, Taylor stated that he is a Ugandan citizen pursuing a Masters’ degree in International Relations in Havard.
He said 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”.
Taylor said that as a citizen living abroad, he was only able to get information relating to his country’s governance and to communicate with 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.
“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, “Taylor said in the lawsuit.
He asserted that his Twitter handle was blocked by the three government officials without giving him notice.
Taylor is asking the court to order Museveni and his officials to unblock him and pay for general damages for the inconvenience caused.
