TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Unlawful Eskom strike costing South Africa three stages of load shedding

      1 July 2022

      Striking Eskom workers will face consequences: De Ruyter

      1 July 2022

      The AI tool that has changed my life as a developer

      1 July 2022

      Google.co.za is down and the domain is pending deletion

      1 July 2022

      US files charges over South African bitcoin fraud scheme

      1 July 2022
    • World

      Meta girds for ‘fierce’ headwinds

      1 July 2022

      Graphics card prices plummet as crypto demand dries up

      30 June 2022

      Bitcoin just had its worst quarter in a decade

      30 June 2022

      Samsung beats TSMC to 3nm chip production

      30 June 2022

      Napster plots crypto comeback

      29 June 2022
    • In-depth

      The NFT party is over

      30 June 2022

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022

      Everything Apple announced at WWDC – in less than 500 words

      7 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»World»Uganda tightens its grip on the Internet

    Uganda tightens its grip on the Internet

    World By Agency Staff27 June 2018
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    If Ugandan authorities have their way, checking Facebook or Twitter will cost you a few cents a day while a state-procured device scans your computer for pornography.

    They’re just some of the measures the government has promised as it seeks extra revenue and tries to curb what it describes as gossip and immorality. Human-rights groups say the social-media tax is the latest attempt to stifle free expression in a country President Yoweri Museveni has ruled with a tight grip for three decades.

    The plans for a levy are “nonsense and a thinly veiled effort to penalise social-media users”, Maria Burnett, an associate director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in an e-mailed response to questions.

    Uganda has pushed for contentious legislation before, introducing a bill to impose tougher prison sentences for homosexuality

    In a nation where independent media often come under pressure — and where Twitter and other sites were shut down during the 2016 election that returned Museveni to power — there’s scepticism over the motives. Uganda has pushed for contentious legislation before, introducing a bill to impose tougher prison sentences for homosexuality. That was overturned in 2014 after a court ruled the law was irregularly approved and as foreign donors indicated they’d redirect funds away from the government.

    The so-called “gossip” tax, passed by parliament and set to take effect on 1 July, will impose a daily 200-shilling levy on users of Facebook, Twitter, Skype, WhatsApp and Viber. Authorities say it will be collected by mobile operators, who will charge the Sim card used to access the facilities.

    Uganda, which has East Africa’s third largest economy and is preparing for its first oil production, needs the revenue. Museveni has said the tax may bring in as much as 1.4-trillion shillings (about US$360-million) per year, helping bridge a budget deficit projected at 6.2% of GDP in the next financial year and that often relies on donor funding.

    Cheap mobile Internet access and social media give an outlet for discussion and free expression in Uganda, where more than 20% of its 40 million population live in poverty. The median monthly wage is 168 000 shillings, or the equivalent of $43, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.

    ‘Museveni isn’t happy’

    Charging users could be a step to stifle growing opposition to Museveni, 73, that’s being expressed on social media, according to Haruna Kanaabi, executive director of the Independent Media Council, a local campaign group.

    “The move in my view is suspicious and intended to make the service expensive so that it does not spread easily,” he said. “Phones have become a tool of discussion and easy dissemination of information, which Museveni isn’t very happy about.”

    The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in April that the proposed taxes “have the potential to curtail freedom of expression and access to information”.

    And then there’s the porn detector.

    A mysterious device described by local media as able “to detect deleted or current pornographic materials stored on people’s computers”, it was first promised by authorities in 2016. Ethics minister Simon Lokodo has said it will tackle “one of the deadliest moral diseases” in the country.

    The “majority of office-going people spend much of their time downloading and watching pornographic material”, he was quoted by the Kampala-based Observer newspaper as saying in August as he vowed to tackle the phenomenon.

    Authorities have never explained how the device — said by the Observer to cost $88 000 — would work. Lokodo said in a phone interview this month that the detector recently arrived, describing it only as a “server” that’s “able to suppress pornographic material”.

    Local computer experts dismiss any suggestion a device would be capable of scanning everyone’s computers or phones. It’s possible, though, that the government could work with Internet service providers to block users from accessing online material, said Tonny Ayeni, a software developer at Kampala-based Tack Tech Technologies.

    Victor Kakama, a director at Omnitech, said that while such filtering by ISPs is plausible, there would be workarounds and it could only limit access, not eliminate it.

    The Uganda-based Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa, which promotes inclusive use of IT, has warned that the country’s anti-pornography, anti-terrorism and computer-misuse laws are also used to curtail Internet freedoms and justify Web surveillance.

    Lokodo declined to comment on the device’s cost or say when it will start operations.  — Reported by Fred Ojambo, (c) 2018 Bloomberg LP

    Facebook Twitter Yoweri Museveni
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleFill in our podcast survey and win
    Next Article Facebook will no longer build Internet in the sky

    Related Posts

    Meta girds for ‘fierce’ headwinds

    1 July 2022

    Graphics card prices plummet as crypto demand dries up

    30 June 2022

    Bitcoin just had its worst quarter in a decade

    30 June 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Billetterie simplifies interactions between law firms and clients

    30 June 2022

    Think herding cats is tricky? Try herding a cloud

    29 June 2022

    How your business can help hybrid workers effectively

    28 June 2022
    Opinion

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.