Uganda Rolls Out a 5-Cent Daily Tax To Access Social Media (time.com) 77
The government of Uganda is taxing social media users at a rate of 5 cents per day, which does not include the usual data fees. "The tax on users of sites such as Facebook was first proposed by long-time leader Yoweri Museveni, who complained of online gossip in a March letter that urged finance minister to raise money 'to cope with the consequences,'" reports Time. From the report: Service providers, including regional telecommunications giant MTN, said in a joint statement Sunday that starting July 1 the levy would be charged on "Over The Top services," including access to websites such as Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. The tax will be deducted by service providers that will then pay to the government revenue service. Amnesty International urged Ugandan authorities to scrap the tax, calling it "a clear attempt to undermine the right to freedom of expression" in the East African country. From the social media levy the government hopes to collect about Shs400 billion (about $100 million) in the current financial year.
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So your boyfriend is fat.
Who cares?
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Yeah, I want you to have my babies. I'm jelly, bro.
Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)
Uganda be kidding me!
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Wow, it looks like reddit is leaking
That's a massive tax (Score:5, Informative)
Bear in mind that many places in rural Uganda have shops where you can buy phone top ups for the local currency equivalent of 25 cents, 5 cent tax per day is a *massive* tax for a lot of Ugandans.
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Bear in mind that many places in rural Uganda have shops where you can buy phone top ups for the local currency equivalent of 25 cents, 5 cent tax per day is a *massive* tax for a lot of Ugandans.
I'm going to advance the hypothesis that Uganda will soon see a massive boom in VPN network use.
Re:That's a massive tax (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure Ugandans are willing to pay a $15 monthly fee to avoid a $1.5 monthly tax
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Yes, the Tor browser is more likely to become super popular though,
Re:That's a massive tax (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm going to advance the hypothesis that Uganda will soon see a massive boom in VPN network use.
The Ugandan government is way ahead of you and already blocking VPNs. [torrentfreak.com]
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So if I rent a random small-time cheap VPS and install OpenVPN on it and connect through there they will somehow block it? What about if I run OpenVPN on an AWS instance? Are they blocking that? What if I use a socks proxy instead of OpenVPN?
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So if I rent a random small-time cheap VPS
Your idea of cheap is not Ugandan idea of cheap. The Ugandans are turning to VPNs to avoid a $0.05 per day tax because the average wage is $1 per day. A 'cheap' VPS is about $5 per month.
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Eh, I was really comparing to people talking about VPNs which aren't cheap either.
To be fair though, you can get a VPS for $1 per month ($12 for a year) that is more than sufficient for OpenVPN or a SOCKS proxy.
https://www.umaxhosting.com/ma... [umaxhosting.com]
Technically this is cheaper than 5 cents per day too ($18.25 per year), but probably not worth the effort for most people for the $6.25 savings per year? Though if their income is $365 a year maybe it is worth it.
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But that can add up if 20 people can use your VPS
Do you know de wey (Score:1)
to avoid dees tax, my brudda?
...or a free privacy upgrade (Score:2)
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Indeed. While it's equivalent to US$1.50 a month if you convert according to exchange rates, if you calculate in terms of median income instead then it's actually approximately equivalent to US$395 a month.
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Is TFA (I can't access it) talking about USD cents or Ush cents though?
VPN's (Score:2)
The tax will be deducted by service providers
I predict that most of the revenue they are expecting will be going to foreign (i.e. non-tax-collecting) VPN providers.
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Hmm let's see. 5 cents a day, 31 days maximum a month. $1.55 a month in taxes.
What kind of VPN service can you get that costs less than $1.55 a month?
If one wants to tax social media (Score:2, Interesting)
One must first define social media.
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One must first define social media.
social media: websites/associated apps whose owners' primary purpose is microtransaction level identity theft.
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One must first define social media.
Social media: a website where people may find criticism of the Ugandan government.
I think most ISPs (Score:2)
Just my 2 cents
Silly Question regarding information and privacy (Score:2)
Translation (Score:3)
"Freedom of expression" --> "We need free access to feed you our ads/propaganda"
In the US they ought to charge at least a dollar a minute to compensate you for consuming their bullshit.
Excellent (Score:4, Interesting)
This is giving US ISPs a case to stand on for when they decide to charge users for specific services they want to access now that Net Neutrality is gone.
Apply this worldwide. (Score:1)
To be fair, if tobacco and alcohol are taxed because of the effects they have on society... then social media is no exception, it is just as much of a damaging drug that effects people psychologically. Social media, facebook in particular is damaging to self-esteem, confidence, and general mental health.
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To be fair, if tobacco and alcohol are taxed because of the effects they have on society... then social media is no exception, it is just as much of a damaging drug that effects people psychologically. Social media, facebook in particular is damaging to self-esteem, confidence, and general mental health.
Tobacco and alcohol are specially taxed for two reasons in no particular order: to placate the moral busybodies who get their jollies from telling other people how to live (it's as good as it gets for them because prohibition doesn't work), and to pad the state's revenue by more heavily taxing for "moral reasons" ("sin taxes") products that lots of people are going to use anyway. The former is an amazingly powerful force in (at least, USA) politics and the latter is simply more tax revenue for a political
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Many countries have nationalised healthcare, where the costs of alcohol/tobacco related health issues are supposed to be paid for by the taxes on those products...
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Many countries have nationalised healthcare, where the costs of alcohol/tobacco related health issues are supposed to be paid for by the taxes on those products...
To which the US libertarians say "well you shouldn't have nationalised healthcare in the first place..."
It's classical utilitarian liberalism versus absolute individualistic freedom.
Re: Apply this worldwide. (Score:1)
you can't really get high off tobacco.
You've got to be kidding. If you're a regular smoker, you are correct. But a non-smoker can gwt one hell of a buzz, and it's a pleasant one, smoking once or twice a month. When I smoke my tobacco pipe a few days in row the craving surfaces and I know it''s time to lay off for at least week or two. But the buzz once in awhile is rather nice.
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Good. Social media has little redeeming value (Score:3)
It strips your privacy in exchange for a false sense of belonging.
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It strips your privacy in exchange for a false sense of belonging.
Yes, we really should repeal all the laws making it compulsory to use social media 24/7.
'to cope with the consequences' (Score:2)
"The tax on users of sites such as Facebook was first proposed by long-time leader Yoweri Museveni, who complained of online gossip in a March letter that urged finance minister to raise money 'to cope with the consequences'"
So.... exactly how will the government of Uganda use the revenue raised from the tax to "to cope with the consequences?"
Perhaps to identify those who do not think like the government to "re-educate" them?
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HTTPS cant hide from a telco and a contractor offering police/mil/gov deep packet inspection.
Discovery is not hard work in 2018.
Who decides what qualifies as "social media"?
A government can do that, just like with any other tax rate.
If you can tax it... (Score:3)
This is about the equivalent of a soda tax.
Both sugar and the internet can make one unhealthy.
One man's vice is another man's revenue stream.
--
"Look on the bright side, it'll be dark soon." -- Midnight Sun
Re:If you can tax it... (Score:4, Informative)
This is about the equivalent of a soda tax.
Both sugar and the internet can make one unhealthy.
One man's vice is another man's revenue stream.
--
"Look on the bright side, it'll be dark soon." -- Midnight Sun
The funny thing is, if governments really want to reduce sugar consumption they can simply stop subsidizing sugar (and especially corn sugar/corn syrup) production.
Allo dere (Score:2)
I just been on the Air Ministry roof, an it pissin' down wit' rain.
How will anyone avoid paying the tax ? (Score:3)
Given that most web pages these days contain links to SM (Facebook, Twitter, ...) often a link to the SM logo or a bit of javascript.
So the person might not knowingly have anything to do with SM but I suspect that their browser downloading these small components will be seen as access to SM and so trigger the day's tax. Now that HTTPS is pervasive it is not possible to determine *what* is being accessed within a web site.
The only way that people are going to be able to avoid this is by installing browser plugins like request policy [requestpolicy.com] - which, in itself, is no bad thing.
Corporatist Lobbying for Profit (Score:2)
The mobile cartels lobbied for this to help protect their profits; from another source: "The Ugandan government has implemented a law forcing mobile users to pay taxes to use mobile money and social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Skype" ... basically the mobile providers are unhappy that users are able to send messages to each other at very low cost using the data network over FB messenger, WhatsApp, Skype etc., where in the past they used to be able to charge exorbitant rates i
So, when are we going to see this in the US? (Score:2)
As someone who lives in a US "Blue" state that's rarely seen a tax increase plan that they didn't like, I have to wonder when our tax department will attempt something similar here.
Hell... we already have a 1% "data services" tax on things like Netflix and iCloud, and we are supposed to be paying a "use tax" on any retail sites that aren't currently collecting state income tax on their sales.
I think that they only reason that they haven't tried taxing social media sites next is because most of them are inco