The management of leading social media website Facebook today wrote back to city lawyer Fred Muwema asking him to provide sufficient information on the two offending posts he reported to them demanding that they take action against their publisher.
Muwema earlier this week wrote to Facebook asking that it takes action against internet rubble-rouser Tom Volitaire Okwalinga, commonly known as TVO, on the grounds that the said TVO recently published on his wall malicious false information alleging the alwyer received a Ush900m bribe from President Museveni to mess up the presidential petition Muwema’s client Amama Mbabazi filed against the president’s recent re-election. TVO is an anonymous character who has for sometime now proven impossible to identify despite so many people he writes controversial things about seeking to get hold of him. The government recently attempted to get hold of him and arrested a few people suspected to be TVO, but the rubble-raiser has continued to thrive online even when those people are in custody.
“If you are trying to report a Wall post or story in your news feed, you can find its direct URL by clicking the time and date that appears in gray with the content (for example: “8 hours ago” or “August 11 at 10:30am.”),” a statement from the Facebook Intellectual Property Operations Manager reads in part.
“If you cannot provide URLs leading directly to the content you wish to report, please be sure to include information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the content, such as a description of the content and where it appears (e.g., on a particular timeline, in a photo album, etc.), dates/times of when the content was posted (usually indicated below the content), names of responsible users, and/or quotes of the content you wish to report as it appears on Facebook,” the statement further says.
Muwema asked Facebook to remove the allegedly infringing/ defamatory content published by TVO, as well as to stop hosting TVO whom he claims is notorious for attacking and injuring the names of many personalities of different standing in Uganda. He said if Facebook doesn’t do his bidding, he will have no alternative but to hold Facebook liable in substantial damages for the making, publication, dissemination and distribution of the defamatory content he reported to them.