By Angela Benton, BlackWeb20.com

If you are surprised by the headline of this story you may not be the only one.  Currently there are riots in Kampala Uganda and local newsources that would typically provide information to people caught in the mix are literally halted…atleast on the web.  The Independent, a local Ugandan newsource, apparently is down because so many people are looking to it for information.  They are communicating via Twitter  In this day in age that shouldn’t be an issue right?  Especially with so many people relying on Twitter as a source for information similar to a newswire.  The main problem with that is information generally has to trend high enough to be distributed to masses on the platform.  In this instance it hasn’t.  Hundreds if not thousands of people (in Kampala and in the US who may have family there) literally have no idea what is going on from the ground.  You are probably thinking that mainstream media has surely covered this in World News.  No dice.  Of course as far at the US is concerned it is September 11th so most coverage today has been focused on that.  However, there is no mention of riots in Kampala on CNN.com which is often dubbed as the “King of News Media using Social Media.”  MSNBC.com does have coverage in their world section.  Most coverage is coming from the BBC and The Guardian (as seen from Google News).  What has resulted is a handful of citizen journalist, one of who includes Gospel Singer Kirk Franklin who was caught in the riots yesterday, reporting what was going on from the ground there.   We reported on this early this morning on Black Web 2.0, here is his own video account of what is going on via YouTube:

Franklin has reported that he is safe via his Twitter account.  Others actively included in disseminating information from the ground, one of whom is in The Red Zone of the attacks, included @mugumya @solomonking @camaraafrica @UgandaTalks.  While they haven’t ditched Twitter completely for updates they have resulted back to blogging to get information out to people who need it.  Solomon King who has a blog called The Rogue King, is live blogging from a Red Zone on his own site in Twitter-like fashion via text, here is a snippet from his site:

1. There’s a mamba (armoured truck) in the hood!4 minutes ago from txt
2. Whoa. Back in Munaku gunshots getting much louder and more frequent. Must be at Kasubi. 17 minutes ago from txt
3. Geez this sneaking around obscure roads and paths on a boda boda is so surreal. 22 minutes ago from txt
4. Okay, heading into office to check on things and pick up my laptop / internet connection. 32 minutes ago from txt
5. Crowd of angry youth coming our way wielding rocks and bars. Need to find a safe spot. 39 minutes ago from txt

Our partner Appfrica.net (based in Uganda) is also reporting that Uganda Telecom is offering free Twitter ussage for Ugandans. Sending ‘tweetme’ to 2299 from anywhere within Uganda, and you’ll get the instructions to sign up.  If you want to help get information out you can re-tweet (repost) some of the citizens tweets and add #kampala to the end of your tweet.  You can follow the #Kampala Tweets in real-time by doing a search on twitter for Kampala or clicking this link.

BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective.  They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.

TAGS: kampala riots, kirk franklin, Uganda

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