Uganda imposes tax on social media use

Apple iPhone 7 on black table with icons of social media facebook, instagram, twitter, snapchat application on screen. Smartphone (Dreamstime/TNS)

KAMPALA: Uganda's parliament has imposed a tax on the use of social media in a bid to raise revenue but opponents of the law say it aims to stifle criticism of President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.

Users will be charged 200 shillings (21sen) per day for services such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. That amounts to around US$19 (RM75) per year in a country where gross domestic product per capita was around US$615 (RM2,449) in 2016, according to World Bank figures.