Uganda plans tax on social media use from July, rights activists cry foul

Uganda plans to slap a new tax on social media users
from July to raise revenue, which human rights activists denounced
as another attempt by President Yoweri Museveni to stifle freedom
of expression and quash dissent to his
32-year-rule.

The move is unlikely to go down well in a country where more
than 40 percent of people use the internet. Data costs in Africa
are already among the world’s highest, according to digital
advocacy group World Wide Web Foundation.

Finance Minister Matia Kasaija told Reuters in a phone interview
that the tax will charge each mobile phone subscriber using
platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook 200 Ugandan
shillings ($0.027) per day. He dismissed concerns it could limit
people’s use of the internet.

“We’re looking for money to maintain the security of the country
and extend electricity so that you people can enjoy more of social
media, more often, more frequently,” he said.

Human rights activists begged to differ, and some took to social
media to criticise the proposal.

“It’s part of a wider attempt to curtail freedoms of
expression,” Rosebell Kagumire, a human rights activist and
blogger, said.

Of Uganda’s 41 million people, 23.6 million are mobile phone
subscribers and 17 million use the internet.

Kasaija said the proposal, to be included in the budget for
fiscal 2018/19 starting in July, had been sent to parliament this
week for review after the cabinet approved it.

The government blocked access to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp
during the last general election in 2016, a move used by other
entrenched rulers in Africa in response to grassroots movements
against them.

Among other governments in East Africa moving to regulate
internet use, Tanzania introduced a law last month requiring any
citizen operating a blog or website to pay an annual licence fee of
1 million Tanzanian shillings ($440).

($1 = 3,690 Ugandan shillings, 2,261 Tanzanian shillings)

Uganda plans to slap a new tax on social media users
from July to raise revenue, which human rights activists denounced
as another attempt by President Yoweri Museveni to stifle freedom
of expression and quash dissent to his
32-year-rule.

The move is unlikely to go down well in a country where more
than 40 percent of people use the internet. Data costs in Africa
are already among the world’s highest, according to digital
advocacy group World Wide Web Foundation.

Finance Minister Matia Kasaija told Reuters in a phone interview
that the tax will charge each mobile phone subscriber using
platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook 200 Ugandan
shillings ($0.027) per day. He dismissed concerns it could limit
people’s use of the internet.

“We’re looking for money to maintain the security of the country
and extend electricity so that you people can enjoy more of social
media, more often, more frequently,” he said.

Human rights activists begged to differ, and some took to social
media to criticise the proposal.

“It’s part of a wider attempt to curtail freedoms of
expression,” Rosebell Kagumire, a human rights activist and
blogger, said.

Of Uganda’s 41 million people, 23.6 million are mobile phone
subscribers and 17 million use the internet.

Kasaija said the proposal, to be included in the budget for
fiscal 2018/19 starting in July, had been sent to parliament this
week for review after the cabinet approved it.

The government blocked access to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp
during the last general election in 2016, a move used by other
entrenched rulers in Africa in response to grassroots movements
against them.

Among other governments in East Africa moving to regulate
internet use, Tanzania introduced a law last month requiring any
citizen operating a blog or website to pay an annual licence fee of
1 million Tanzanian shillings ($440).

($1 = 3,690 Ugandan shillings, 2,261 Tanzanian shillings)