Something unusual happened across Uganda on Tuesday evening. While government officials were confirming they had cut nationwide internet access, thousands of people were downloading BItchat, a messaging app that does not need the internet to work.
The shutdown kicked in just before Thursday’s presidential vote. It’s the third election in a row where Ugandan authorities have done this. Nyombi Thembo, who runs the Uganda Communications Commission, says cutting the internet stops misinformation from spreading. But many people think it’s really about controlling what voters can see and share during the election.
A Week of Empty Promises
Thembo sounded pretty sure of himself last week. “Why would you use Bitchat when there is internet, internet will be there, use internet,” he told reporters. No shutdown coming, he promised. He also claimed his team could shut down Bitchat anytime they felt like it, calling it “a small thing” they could handle easily.
Well, that didn’t pan out. Opposition figure Bobi Wine had already told his supporters to grab the app just in case, warning them about what might happen based on past elections. They listened. Bitchat developer Calle said over 400,000 Ugandans had downloaded it by early January. The number’s probably way higher now. “You can’t stop Bitchat. You can’t stop us,” Calle fired back online at Thembo. The app runs on Bluetooth mesh networks, which means it hops from phone to phone without needing traditional internet at all.
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Other Countries Face Similar Problems
Uganda isn’t alone in this. About 50,000 people in Nepal grabbed Bitchat last September when their government blocked social media during corruption protests. Madagascar dealt with the same thing a few weeks after that. Then Jamaicans started using it in November when Hurricane Melissa tore through and destroyed normal ways of communicating.
The pattern is clear: when phones and platforms fail—whether because of politics or disasters—people still find ways to connect. Bitchat works in those gaps, keeping conversations alive when everything else goes quiet.
