Ugandans who use their smartphones to access social messaging services are to be taxed under a new law seen by critics as a government attempt to restrict internet freedoms.
Users of WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook will be required to pay 4p a day after Uganda’s parliament passed the controversial act on Thursday.
MPs rejected suggestions that Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s ageing president, was seeking to emulate other East African governments that have imposed exacting controls over the internet this month.
Mr Museveni presented the legislation as a necessary step to deal with the “consequences of gossiping” on social media.
“We are going to control it,” he said. “We know who is spreading hate messages....