Bridging Digital and Democratic Spaces: Social Media’s Role in Electoral Engagement and Peacebuilding in Uganda

Join the Wilson Center on Wednesday, December 11 from 12:30 to 2:00 pm for a public event on the role of social media in electoral engagement and peacebuilding in Uganda. 

Across Africa, the rapid growth of social media has sparked both opportunities and tensions, particularly in the context of elections. While digital platforms are reshaping how citizens engage in political discourse, they also highlight the delicate balance between empowering civic participation and state efforts to regulate and control public narratives. 

In Uganda, where freedom of speech, assembly, and expression often face significant constraints, social media has redefined the nature of political engagement. For the 80% of Ugandans under the age of 30, social media platforms present an opportunity to cultivate political ownership at the same time as they expose broad swathes of the population to disinformation and polarization online. 

Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding scholar Latifah Namutebi will lead a panel discussion unpacking the long-term consequences of Uganda’s increasingly online electorate and the role social media is playing in democratization in the country. Discussion will focus on the tradeoff between social media as an open platform and the ability of self-interested actors to censor and curate the content reaching users’ feeds.