By William Madouk<\/p>\n
National Communication Authority (NCA) contemplate to reverse its decision to partially ban social media platforms, primarily Facebook and TikTok, due widespread criticism.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The initial directive, issued on Wednesday, instructed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to restrict access to these platforms for up to 90 days.<\/p>\n This move was attributed to the circulation of videos depicting violence against South Sudanese citizens in Sudan, which triggered protests in South Sudan.<\/p>\n The ban has drawn strong condemnation from various sectors, with concerns raised about freedom of expression and the potential impact on businesses and individuals.<\/p>\n However, facing mounting pressure, NCA Director-General Napoleon Adok Gai said they would end the ban within 72 hours.<\/p>\n He clarified yesterday that the intended action was to suspend specific features within Facebook and TikTok, not to completely block access to the platforms.<\/p>\n \u201cOur directive was to suspend the Facebook and TikTok features specifically, not the entire social media,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He noted that social media encompasses a wider range of platforms, but they focused on those two applications due to the high volume of sensitive video sharing occurring in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a result of these efforts, meta platforms, they have been in contact with us and they have taken measures to blur out and also to remove some of those gruesome images that we were really concerned about,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd as such, even though we have set the date for 30 days, it means that with this compliance, there is a possibility we can lift the ban of these two social media within the next 72 hours,\u201d Adok continued. Section of the public, activists, and advocates have expressed strong criticism of the National Communication Authority (NCA) for partially blocking access to social media.<\/p>\n Arop Malueth Manon, President of the South Sudan Bar Association, stated that banning social media platforms imposes collective punishment on the entire country for the misconduct of a few individuals, which he described as unreasonable, unfair, and unjustifiable.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of notice period for execution of the order by NCA, the bar association noted that the order was signed on 22 January 2025 and its implementation was done in less than 12 hours,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n The Bar Association condemned the order and urged the NCA to withdraw and revoke the directives within 72 hours or face a legal suit.<\/p>\n \u201cFailure to revoke the ban on social media within 72 hours, will leave the South Sudan Bar Association with no option other than to institute legal proceedings at the South Sudan courts, EAC court of Justice as well as other regional and international avenues,\u201d Manon noted.<\/p>\n Also, the United People\u2019s Alliance (UPA), an umbrella of non-signatory to the 2018 peace deal also condemned the move, terming it a gross violation of the constitutional rights of South Sudanese citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government has unconstitutionally taken away the only window to the world to communicate with relatives and friends in diaspora and seek their support amid the current economic hardship created by the very government,\u201d said Lual Dau, the UPA Secretary-General in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is unacceptable and should be widely condemned by all those who care about fundamental freedoms, freedom of speech is a human right; no government is allowed to deprive its citizens of this fundamental right,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By William Madouk National Communication Authority (NCA) contemplate to reverse its decision to partially ban social media platforms, primarily Facebook and TikTok, due widespread criticism. The initial directive, issued on Wednesday, instructed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to restrict access to these platforms for up to 90 days. This move was[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":32776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Director-General-of-the-National-Communication-Authority-NCA-Napoleon-Adok-Gai-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32777,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32775\/revisions\/32777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCriticisms.<\/p>\n