Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Uganda Levies Social Media Tax to Prevent Gossip

posted by mrpg on Sunday June 03 2018, @10:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the let's-gossip dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Ugandu has reached rock bottom and yet has started to dig even deeper with the recent announcement that a daily fee of 200 shillings will be levied to use social media. This is not the first time a country has attempted to have ISPs charge a separate fee for social network access.

Today, Uganda's parliament passed a controversial "social media tax." It will consist of a daily fee of about 200 shillings (5 US cents) levied on anyone who uses social networking and messaging apps and platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter. According to Trading Economics, in 2016, Uganda had a per-capita income of $666.10, so this isn't an insubstantial tax.

President Yoweri Museveni was a vocal supporter of and advocate the bill. He believes that social media encourages "gossip," according to BBC News. The law will go into effect as of July 1st, but it's not clear how the government will monitor its citizens or collect the tax.

Also at the BBC

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Uganda Levies Social Media Tax to Prevent Gossip | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 38 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @01:13AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @01:13AM (#688175)

    those are the news sources the cia told the dnc to say are fake

    Well, to be fair, the CIA got the list from the Illuminati who are really only doing the bidding of a consortium of the Aliens, Flat Earth Society and the SPCA. And, of course, heavily influenced by the Skill & Bones Society, Doctor's without Borders, Topeka Chamber of Commerce, Bohemian Grove, Selma Hayek, and Bill Nye. And watch out for that bastard Bill Nye!

    What were we talking about?