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In the minutes after midnight last Saturday night, at Kampala's Big Kafunda bar, customers began to look confusedly at their phones. "The reception here is terrible," commented house music. "My Facebook messages are not sent."
It was not the Internet that was to blame. Instead, a social media tax that the Ugandan government said it put in place to increase revenues and curb "gossip" came into play. "I'm just stuck in one place after that. what I was supposed to find someone? "Another young Ugandan complained.
The new tax means that the Ugandan population of more than 40 million can no longer use sites and applications including Facebook, Twitter, Skype, WhatsApp, Instagram and Viber. daily fee of 200 Ugandan shillings (the equivalent in euro of just under five hundred). In a country where the average annual income is slightly above 1,100 euros, this is a significant sum for the poorest residents, who buy data in packages of 250 to 1,000 shillings (5.5 and 22 cents ).
March, when 32-year-old Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni wrote a letter to his finance minister complaining about online gossip
"People thought it was a joke", said Bright Baba, a 41-year-old businessman. who relies on social media to market and share his work. "Social media should help young people thrive, but you prevent them from thriving, let them use this opportunity."
Student Clbades
There is concern that university students skipping clbades for work are unduly affected. "When they do not attend clbades, they have WhatsApp groups to catch up [on what was taught that day]," Baba said, adding that the extra fees could make catching up a lot harder for students. "You are going to affect their education, people are trying to survive, a person is going to miss the clbad because they are trying to find something to eat."
Simon Muyanga, a Ugandan media personality and political activist, agreed , saying The Irish Times "the president is forgetting that we who are in universities use the same services to share research, do business, talk to families, we live in a virtual world now. 19659002] "Today, I can take a simple selfie of myself and send it to my mother in the village, she can take a selfie and send it to me. The government is not only affecting us economically but also our families. Should I lose contact with my family then? "
I can take a simple selfie of myself and send it to my mother in the village, she can take a selfie and send it to me
Muyanga said that he thought the tax was a reaction of the government against attempts to organize the opposition and hold the officials in power. "The incentive is to reduce political activism and political debate, because this government is becoming more and more unpopular by the day. I have been a journalist for 20 years but I am ready to be part of any campaign against this. "
A protest is scheduled for Monday, July 9, which will see Ugandans refuse to buy or use the phone credit. Muyanga said it would be a silent boycott and they expected that a million people would take part.
Freedom of speech
Several legal challenges are also expected against the tax. A lawsuit, filed this week in the Ugandan Constitutional Court, accuses the government of violating the principles of net neutrality, and declared that the law was "adopted without public participation and hindered the freedom of the public". expression and innovation ".
tax. Parliament spokesman Chris Obore told CNN that social media is an obvious source of revenue for the country. "The government is trying not to rely too much on donor funding, it is simply a redistributive tax because the government is seeking money from those who have to fund projects." , he said.
It is simply a redistributive tax, the government seeking money.
According to the World Bank, only 22% of Ugandans used the Internet in 2016, although this number has risen sharply in recent years.Amnesty International was one of many organizations to have called the tax of attack against freedom of expression. "It is not the role of the Ugandan authorities to determine which discussions on social media platforms are useful, but rather to defend and encourage the unhindered enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression." expression, both online and offline, "said Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International's director for East Africa, in The Irish Times [19659002TherichestandmosttechnologicallyadvancedUgandanshavedecidedtodownloadvirtualprivatenetworks(VPNs)althoughthegovernmenthasthreatenedtoblocksomeofthemorepopularversionsOtherssimplypaythetaxwhichcanbeperformeddailyweeklyormonthlybyphone
However, the expense and confusion of maintaining the tax seem to have scared some clients.
Wednesday in Buziga, a hilly suburb overlooking Lake Victoria, the shopkeeper, Diana, complained about the 90% drop in telephone credit since the tax entry. "It's not good, it's very hard, there are people who do not have money," she says. "The people who support you will not come back . I do not know what to do. "
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