By MUHAMMED S. BAH
Responding to the question being raised by a lot of people regarding their lack of access to social media sites and whether it has been blocked by the authorities, Mr. Ansumana Sanneh, the Director General of Public Utilities and Regulatory Authority (PURA), said they do not regulate social media sites utilized by users in the country.
Mr. Sanneh told this reporter on the phone yesterday, Monday, 29 August 2016, that PURA, which has the legal mandate to regulate telecommunication services, has never instructed any internet service provider to block any social media site.
Asked whether the problem of lack of access to IMO, Skype and Whatsapp which the users are experiencing for 11 days now was as a result of a directive to block them, the PURA director general responded in the negative, reiterating that his institution has never ordered any licence operator to block any site.
“PURA always informs the general public on whatever they are to engage in or involved into,” said the director general.
However, users of the above mentioned social media internet applications have not been able to communicate with each other both within and outside of the Gambia for close to two weeks now as they are being blocked.
