Uganda's parliament has passed a law that lets the government tax the use of social media platforms like WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and more. President Yoweri Museveni had pushed for the changes, arguing that social media encouraged gossip. 

The law permits collection of 200 shillings (five cents) a day on users of so-called “over-the-top” services which publish content bypassing traditional distributors. The new law did not spell out how the tax would be applied and collected. The law will go into effect as of July 1st. 

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About 17 million people, or 40 per cent of Uganda's total population, currently there is no plan available that outlines how this new law will be implemented or how the use of social media will be regulated. Today's approval also imposes a 1% tax on all transactions made through mobile. Critics warn that the latest taxes would hurt low-income earners and residents of the rural regions who use mobile money systems instead of mainstream banks.

“We're looking for money to maintain the security of the country and extend electricity so that you people can enjoy more social media, more often, more frequently,” President Museveni had said earlier in the year justifying the move to tax social media access.

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Such an event is being witnessed in history for the first time and many critics believe that the government is using the justification of curbing down on gossip and improving tax collection to tackle freedom of expression. In the last one decade, social media has played a significant role in spreading information faster than ever, many governments around the world have already blocked access to a lot of these platforms fearing revolutions. 

China is widely known for having strict control over its internet, while many countries in the Gulf region have barred features like WhatsApp Calls / FaceTime because the data cannot be monitored. These concerns are further backed by the events of 2016 when access to social media was shut down in Uganda during the Presidential Election. 

© President Yoweri Museveni / Reuters

Uganda isn't the only country looking to limit its population's usage of social media, though. Papua New Guinea recently announced that the country would block access to Facebook for a month to analyze how the population is using the service.