It's no more news that our telco operators are trying really hard to persuade the NCC to block WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter and other over-the-top (OTT) services in Nigeria. Well in similar news, the Ugandan Gov't have just taken a controversial step towards regulating social media in its own country, and we hope our government doesn't do the same in Nigeria.
On Wednesday, the Uganda Parliament made legal the imposement of a tax of 200 shillings (which is equivalent to $0.05 or N20) per day on users of “over the top” platforms which publish content bypassing traditional distributors. This simply means that users of social medias including Facebook, Skype, Snapchat, etc., in Uganda will be charged N20 each day.
The directive will become effective starting from July 2018. However, how this tax will be applied and collected in practice wasn't stated in the new law, leaving a deep hole for the legislature to deal with.
According to Uganda's finance minister, David Bahati, the aim of the legislation was only to raise revenue for “public services”. But quite contradicting to this statement is that of President Museveni who wrote to the finance ministry earlier in March, urging the introduction of the tax as a way to deal with the consequences of online “gossip”. What does public service and gossip have in common?
In a nut shell, starting from next month, Ugandans will be paying close to ₦7200 yearly just to use social media in a bid to end online gossiping. And meanwhile, it's worth noting that this tax is not for internet subscription, they take care of the data to browse from their own pocket too, separately.
How would you react if this was brought to Nigeria? Afterall, we are the ones tagged as “lazy youths” by our President.
On Wednesday, the Uganda Parliament made legal the imposement of a tax of 200 shillings (which is equivalent to $0.05 or N20) per day on users of “over the top” platforms which publish content bypassing traditional distributors. This simply means that users of social medias including Facebook, Skype, Snapchat, etc., in Uganda will be charged N20 each day.
The directive will become effective starting from July 2018. However, how this tax will be applied and collected in practice wasn't stated in the new law, leaving a deep hole for the legislature to deal with.
According to Uganda's finance minister, David Bahati, the aim of the legislation was only to raise revenue for “public services”. But quite contradicting to this statement is that of President Museveni who wrote to the finance ministry earlier in March, urging the introduction of the tax as a way to deal with the consequences of online “gossip”. What does public service and gossip have in common?
In a nut shell, starting from next month, Ugandans will be paying close to ₦7200 yearly just to use social media in a bid to end online gossiping. And meanwhile, it's worth noting that this tax is not for internet subscription, they take care of the data to browse from their own pocket too, separately.
How would you react if this was brought to Nigeria? Afterall, we are the ones tagged as “lazy youths” by our President.
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