False: Ugandan Government Did Not Plan On Switching Off The Internet To Block Bobi Wine’s Participation In The Geneva Summit

The claims were made in “anticipation of it”, but there is no communication of a shutdown and blockage.

Claim

A claim posted on  Tiktok claims that the Ugandan government plans to shut down the internet on the 18th February 2026, which is today, in a bid to block Robert Kyagulanyi from participating in the Geneva summit this year. The post garnered over 1,630 likes, 1,009 shares, 130 bookmarks, and 128 comments

The Fact-check

We prompted the info-verifier, a debunking fact-checking tool, with a query, “Is Bobi Wine participating in the Geneva summit this year?” And because no fact-checking platform had

written about the topic, the verifier did not have access to results related to the query. But directed us to sources that had information regarding Bobi Wine’s participation.

When we clicked on the Geneva summit and the Edge.ug links provided by the Info verifier, they both confirmed Kyagulanyi’s participation in the summit.

We went ahead to search the official Geneva Summit’s website to corroborate the findings of the Info verifier. The facts showed that Bobi wine is among the keynote speakers and will be addressing the summit virtually today, the 18th of February, 2026. 

Many of the other speakers are to attend  in person at the International Conference Center Geneva (CICG), located at Rue de Varembé 17, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland, as seen in some YouTube live streams and at Geneva Summit 

Internet shutdown claims.

We also examined if Bobi Wine’s participation could by any chance have prompted the government to threaten an internet shutdown to block him from participating and addressing the public.

At the time of this fact-check, 3:26pm EAT, Uganda’s internet had not been shut down, and that is how we were able to work on this fact-check.

Regardless, we went on to check the Uganda communications website and their  X account to see if there was an earlier shutdown communique prior to today that could have prompted the claim, as previously done towards the elections, as seen below.

There is no official communication from the government in regard to the claim of internet shutdown, and the internet is active, as the Geneva Summit is also happening. 

To examine the claim  and to help us in sourcing facts if the internet was to be shut down due to Bobi Wine’s virtual participation in the Geneva Summit happening on 18th February 2026. However, there was no information in the provided verified sources indicating that the government of Uganda plans to shut down the internet on the 18th of February 2026.

The Geneva Summit is an annual human rights and democracy event focused on human rights issues, bringing together activists, dissidents, and policymakers. It is typically held in Geneva, Switzerland, often around February or March, coinciding with the UN Human Rights Council sessions.

Verdict

FALSE: There were no communicated plans to shut down the internet to block Kyagulanyi Robert from speaking at the Geneva summit. As we write this fact-check, the internet is on and the summit is ongoing. 

As for the claims of blocking him from sneaking out of the country to attend the summit in person, those remain unverified. But the summit graphic indicates that he will be addressing the gathering in a video, which contradicts the claim narrative.

This fact-check was produced by AHIMBISIBWE AMON with support from the Debunk Media Initiative and BBC Media Action.