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LAGOS (CNN) – A Ugandan technology company has filed a lawsuit against the government over a new tax on social media, which came into effect on Sunday.
The tax means that Ugandans will now have to pay 200 Ugandan shillings ($ 0.05) a day to use popular platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.
In the lawsuit, the Ugandan government is accused of violating the principles of net neutrality. and the petitioners want the Constitutional Court of Uganda to overturn the government's decision to impose the unpopular tax and "declare it illegal, null and void".
They claim that the tax was "adopted without public participation and impedes freedom of speech and innovation" in the petition.
Silver Kayondo, one of the men involved in the lawsuit, wrote on Twitter: My affidavit, I argue that the tax offends the principles of NetNeutrality … "
Angry Ugandans turned to social media to complain about the new tax, and two men stormed the country's parliament before being arrested, local media reported.
they had no income and used services such as WhatsApp to communicate with their course tutors.
President Museveni, who has been running the country since 1986, reportedly introduced the bill because it says that social media encourage gossip.
Fewer Ugandans have been online since Sunday, and one described it as "absolute torture."
Many say the tax will affect their livelihood while others see it as a double taxation since a 1% tax is also applied to mobile money transactions.
"You can not pay the infamous tax on social media without Mobile Money.", Writes one on Twitter. "Folks, you have to charge Mobile Money, face the 1% deduction and then go ahead to deal with a tax deduction on social media …"
Bill 2018 on Excise duties will be changed through mobile operators via individual SIM cards because Africans primarily access the Internet via mobile phones.
Some tech savvy Ugandans first installed encrypted virtual private networks (VPNs) to avoid the tax.
However, local media reports that the government has now blocked some of the VPN sites.
A legislator told CNN that the tax had been imposed to raise funds for the country and to avoid reliance on donor aid.
Parliament spokesman Chris Obore defended the law, saying that the more Ugandans use social media, the more vital they will be for the country.
"The government is trying not to rely too much on donor funding, but simply on a redistributive tax because the government is seeking money from those who have to fund projects," Obore said. at CNN. "The tax is very low: 200 shillings (50 cents) in Uganda to a dollar is very negligible, people in Uganda will not find it too expensive."
The tax will make sure that the cost of Internet access will be out of reach of millions of Ugandan low-income and jobless, said the World Wide Web Foundation.
The price of a 1GB mobile broadband package in Uganda costs more than 15% of average monthly income, according to figures from the Alliance for Affordable Internet. World Bank figures show that only 22% of the country is currently online.
The International ICT Policy Collaboration in Eastern and Southern Africa (CIPESA) released a report in 2016 that the Ugandan government was stifling digital rights.
Ugandan security forces blocked the country's internet access during the February 2016 elections.
President Museveni defended this measure as "a security measure to prevent lies … intended to incite violence and illegally declare electoral results. "
This new tax comes as the neighboring country, Tanzania, recently introduced a controversial $ 930 tax on bloggers and online publishers, a decision that is challenged by local activists in court.
In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a cybercrime bill that criminalizes the publication of false news and imposes heavy fines and a two-year prison sentence on those found guilty, despite the pressures of the international group on media rights. ] Damilola Odutayo contributed to this report
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