# Election shutdown

**Country:** 🇺🇬 Uganda (UG)
**Date:** 2021-01-13
**Type:** Censorship
**Severity:** CRITICAL
**Status:** confirmed

## Summary

OONI detected censorship pattern in Uganda. Election shutdown. Anomaly rate: 13.7%

## Metrics

- Confidence: 95%
- Measurements (stored incident count; not the qualifying evidence count): 6,050
- Anomaly Rate: 16.0%

## Evidence

- **OONI** (measurement): Election shutdown
  - Observed: 2021-02-03
  - Confidence: 73%
  - [OONI Explorer filtered results (not one measurement)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=UG&since=2021-02-03&until=2021-02-04)
- **OONI** (measurement): Web connectivity anomalies detected. 131 measurements with 16.0% anomaly rate.
  - Observed: 2021-02-03
  - Confidence: 36%
  - [OONI Explorer filtered results (not one measurement)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?since=2021-02-03&until=2021-02-04&probe_cc=UG&test_name=web_connectivity&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): Election shutdown
  - Observed: 2021-01-23
  - Confidence: 89%
  - [OONI Explorer filtered results (not one measurement)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=UG&since=2021-01-23&until=2021-01-24)
- **OONI** (measurement): Web connectivity anomalies detected. 767 measurements with 13.7% anomaly rate.
  - Observed: 2021-01-23
  - Confidence: 34%
  - [OONI Explorer filtered results (not one measurement)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?since=2021-01-23&until=2021-01-24&probe_cc=UG&test_name=web_connectivity&only=anomalies)
- **OONI** (measurement): Election shutdown
  - Observed: 2021-01-20
  - Confidence: 95%
  - [OONI Explorer filtered results (not one measurement)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=UG&since=2021-01-20&until=2021-01-21)
- **OONI** (measurement): Web connectivity anomalies detected. 4032 measurements with 13.7% anomaly rate.
  - Observed: 2021-01-20
  - Confidence: 34%
  - [OONI Explorer filtered results (not one measurement)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?since=2021-01-20&until=2021-01-21&probe_cc=UG&test_name=web_connectivity&only=anomalies)

## OONI observations withheld from evidence

These linked OONI rows carry the historical signal_level='normal' stored label and are quarantined from qualifying evidence pending regrade. The label is not proof that every row was accessible or anomaly-free: low-anomaly rows and rows with an omitted confirmed result may be present.

- OONI row with stored label `normal` — observed 2021-02-10
  - [OONI Explorer filtered results (not one measurement)](https://explorer.ooni.org/search?probe_cc=UG&since=2021-02-10&until=2021-02-11)

## What we cannot say

- **Who caused it** — measurement data alone does not attribute the interference to any government, ISP, or other actor.
- **Intent** — anomalous or unreachable measurements indicate interference, not a stated motive or a deliberate-vs-incidental determination.
- **Which networks** — no specific ASN/ISP is identified for this incident.
- **The mechanism** — we cannot state whether this was DNS tampering, TLS/SNI reset, HTTP blockpage, throttling, or an infrastructure outage.
- **Sub-national scope** — measurement is aggregated at the country level; we cannot localize to a province, city, or network segment.
- **Independent corroboration** — fewer than two source labels appear in qualifying linked evidence; stored incident source labels may include quarantined OONI observations.

## Data Sources

ooni

These source labels come from qualifying linked evidence. Historical incident source labels and quarantined observations are excluded; multiple labels alone do not establish independent corroboration.

## Citation

Voidly Research. (2026). Election shutdown [UG-2021-0001]. Retrieved from https://voidly.ai/incident/UG-2021-0001

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*Report generated by Voidly Research on 2026-11-05*
*Data licensed under CC BY 4.0*
*Incident ID: UG-2021-0001*
*Permalink: https://voidly.ai/incident/UG-2021-0001*