In Uganda, using social media or messenger services is now a taxable activity

[DuckDodgers]

 

Quote

As of yesterday, social media use in Uganda became a taxable activity, with users of Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Tinder and dozens of other services all hit by new legislation. With users flooding to VPNs to avoid this new assault on their pockets, VPN use has gone through the roof. In response, the government says it has ordered local ISPs to begin blocking VPNs.

 

Passed in May by the Ugandan parliament, the legislation requires local Internet service providers to block a wide range of social media and telecoms platforms until subscribers pay a flat fee of 200 shillings (US$0.051) per day. While just shy of US$19 per year might not initially sound like much, per capita income stands at US$600 and millions of Ugandans survive on less than a dollar per day

 

 

Now, that's something one would expect to come from the private sector (telecoms) as the net neutrality is being repealed in USA.

I hope this crashes down and don't turn into a bad precedent for the power hungry and cash strapped governments around the world. Censorship and site blocking is bad enough.

 

Source: https://torrentfreak.com/uganda-to-block-vpns-after-people-begin-avoiding-new-social-media-tax-180702/

[Ryujin2003]

1 minute ago, DuckDodgers said:

Now, that's something one would expect to come from the private sector (telecoms) as the net neutrality is being repealed in USA.

I hope this crashes down and don't turn into a bad precedent for the power hungry and cash strapped governments around the world. Censorship and site blocking is bad enough.

Considering it's coming from Uganda, I wouldn't find it fair to compare the attempted practice if these tactics in the US or even Europe.

 

I didn't think Uganda had a strong telecommunications infrastructure, so their idea to take might be because there heavy use of social media is taking their infrastructure.

 

Trying to force ISP to stop VPN usage is a natural progress... Look at states in the US forcing online retailers to collect their sales tax that they would otherwise lose. Gotta get around the abuse if the system somehow.

 

There is a logical and decent way to go about it, and there is the Wil Wheaton Don't be Dick move.

 

I don't think this will influence anything in the states. The best it will do is get some human rights group to get other governments to pressure Uganda into not being a dick.

[AskTJ]

[jagdtigger]

Smombie tax, finally....

[TacoSenpai]

Uganda Knuckles tried to warn us of the end times if we did not no da whey and we didn't listen.

[PCGuy_5960]

I know that they are trying to make money, but dis is not da wae.

Spoiler

Sorry, I had to revive this dead meme.

 

[Sauron]

13 minutes ago, DuckDodgers said:

Now, that's something one would expect to come from the private sector (telecoms) as the net neutrality is being repealed in USA.

Actually this is better, it punishes all services equally and doesn't enforce a monopoly. I'm not saying it's good obviously but... in this matter Uganda seems to be better than the US.

[captain_to_fire]

33 minutes ago, DuckDodgers said:

the government says it has ordered local ISPs to begin blocking VPNs.

There are ways around state sponsored VPN blocks. Few of which is Tor, a good tool to get around government censorship or by configuring the VPN to use ports typically used by HTTPS like the TCP Port 443. I2P and Psiphon are other tools used to circumvent government imposed censorship.

Edited July 3, 2018 by captain_to_fire

[DeLorian]

 

This is not da wae indeed. Good luck blocking VPNs though. See how well China does that. Oh, wait. 

 

Found this on reddit:

 

 

[DeLorian]

I haven't seen the movie (not really interested tbh), I just know the memes  

[TVwazhere]

34 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

RIP-- oh god would it be spoilers to follow through with this joke?

At this point the movie has been out for three months, anyone who wants to see it will have pretty much seen it. 

[TVwazhere]

4 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

but the other half of me wants to say "this movie doesn't feel complete without part 2"...

Well yeah, it's like when they split the 7th harry potter book into two movies. You're still gonna see spoilers for the first half (assuming you didnt read the books) 

[Nicnac]

Uganda be kidding

[captain_to_fire]

7 minutes ago, Nicnac said:

Uganda be kidding

Well played sir 

[Christophe Corazza]

Pay money to use sites that make money off of you but to your own goverment as well?

I feel like the idea is backwards. I think the social media sites should be taxed by the government if they want to continue to exploit their citizens data.

[Zodiark1593]

20 minutes ago, Arokhantos said:

Bet its gonna fail hard when everyone uses vpn

That is until VPN usage gets taxed.

[Shreyas1]

13 hours ago, DeLorian said:

 

tunnelbear dies in infinity war

[Andreas Lilja]

Can the average Ugandan even afford most VPN services? Do they do regional pricing?

 

Social media tax is around 1,5$ per month... most VPN services start at 6-7$ per month.

 

It's cheaper to pay the tax.

[PlayStation 2]

taxation = theft

[asus killer]

4 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

taxation = theft

who do you suggest pays for the roads for example?

[PlayStation 2]

3 minutes ago, asus killer said:

who do you suggest pays for the roads for example?

i dunno

never thought i'd get this far

[asus killer]

2 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

never thought i'd get this far

no wonder, you don't wanna pay for the roads. It's hard to go far by walking trough wilderness 

[PlayStation 2]

2 minutes ago, asus killer said:

no wonder, you don't wanna pay for the roads. It's hard to go far by walking trough wilderness 

so we're gonna play bullshit games now

alright ashley

I can go drive down the fucking street and show you how damaged the street is

obviously tax money isn't being used to pave the fucking roads if there's damage all over the place

[asus killer]

4 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

so we're gonna play bullshit games now

alright ashley

I can go drive down the fucking street and show you how damaged the street is

obviously tax money isn't being used to pave the fucking roads if there's damage all over the place

it's really hard to be serious if you answer a topic about taxes in Uganda with the experience from the street in front of your house in Alabama.

[Drak3]

15 minutes ago, asus killer said:

who do you suggest pays for the roads for example?

Dominoes. They've done a better job in the past month than govt. has done in the past few years.