Tax on internet usage ????

So this was erroneously posted in 'gaming bs' by joxer but I thought i would move it here to post my comment:

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Kinda no, but in fact is.
https://torrentfreak.com/uganda-to-b…ia-tax-180702/

Uganda has new tax:
Starting yesterday, that’s now the reality in Uganda after the authorities introduced a controversial tax on people using dozens of Internet services including Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, and Instagram.

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.
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This to me is incredible. A tax to visit certain sites? Would this be equivalent to a tax to text or a tax to walk across the street or a tax to play board game? I mean I suppose this might be a target simply because it is 'easy' to implement but I don't understand the logic - no money is changing hands between the consumer and the website and there is no value associated with people who use social media vs wiki (yes the companies make money but not the consumer).
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My guess is the tax is done to discourage the use of these services but it still seems kind of odd to myself (btw no clue how much value $1.5 is for someone living in ugandia - naturally in the us it is less then the govt tax for phone service).

Hope this doesn't catch on in the US given how everything is taxed nowadays. Given that we all have to pay internet sales taxes now, and other bizarre taxes it might.

Well in the US it wouldn't be a tax; with fcc repeal of net neutrality we could see at&t charging for netflix access and comcast charging for amazon access
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No I don't see this happening tomorrow but it could....

Couchpotato said:

Hope this doesn't catch on in the US given how everything is taxed nowadays. Given that we all have to pay internet sales taxes now, and other bizarre taxes it might.

Click to expand...

Capitalism will find a way

Ugandian tax is not on internet usage but is tax on social networks addiction. Those who don't use social networks don't have to pay anything.
I wish everyone had that because accessing Facebook through VPN avoids registering user's targetted site and this tax cannot apply on such user. If all countries in the world had that same tax on facebooks and twitters, VPNs couldn't help avoiding it.

USA doesn't need any such tax, Comcast already screws (and taxes) people after net neutrality went into a drain thanks to corrupted politicians there:
https://arstechnica.com/information...obile-video-will-charge-extra-for-hd-streams/

joxer said:

Ugandian tax is not on internet usage but is tax on social networks addiction. Those who don't use social networks don't have to pay anything.
I wish everyone had that because accessing Facebook through VPN avoids registering user's targetted site and this tax cannot apply on such user.

USA doesn't need any such tax, Comcast already screws (and taxes) people after net neutrality went into a drain thanks to corrupted politicians there:
https://arstechnica.com/information...obile-video-will-charge-extra-for-hd-streams/

Click to expand...

Well look at what AT&T did after buying Time Warner after promising the judge.

Link - https://arstechnica.com/information...-time-warner-merger-its-raising-them-instead/

I'm getting tired of paying for increases and other taxes, and lets face the facts there is not much competition for Satellite, or cable anymore because of Comcast & AT&T.

THat's not an internet tax that is a cellular tax; several companies have had those for a while but they frequently change based on market forces.

joxer said:

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USA doesn't need any such tax, Comcast already screws (and taxes) people after net neutrality went into a drain thanks to corrupted politicians there:
https://arstechnica.com/information...obile-video-will-charge-extra-for-hd-streams/

Click to expand...

It's interesting how corrupt politicians and businessmen always keep making up taxes to create more money for themselves out of thin air. Who exactly pockets all that social tax money in Uganda? Well, at least air is still free to breathe.

True, they always find something to skin sheep.

In 2018. we can agree that internet access became a human right. Okay, we don't have to agree as everything good and bad is now there and societies existed without it, but in modern world it became as essential as water.
Some countries pulled out of human rights comittee though, so don't expect internet there will be discussed about when it comes to human rights.

Anyway… In most countries special taxes are applied on what's considered luxury. While internet today isn't luxury but a need and in many cases a necessity, it shouldn't be taxed. Or throttled.
Facebook however is luxury. You can live, communicate, remain informed and do business without it. Just as noone really needs alcohol to relax.

Elel said:

Who exactly pockets all that social tax money in Uganda? Well, at least air is still free to breathe.

Click to expand...

For now.... we have the best socialist minds in the world trying to figure out the perfect carbon scheme tax. Of course we are going to add a social pressure element to the tax to make you seem like a guntoting backwards chainsmoking unemployed science skeptic hick planet hater if you question our fuzzy logic or disagree in any way.

joxer said:

True, they always find something to skin sheep.

In 2018. we can agree that internet access became a human right. Okay, we don't have to agree as everything good and bad is now there and societies existed without it, but in modern world it became as essential as water.
Some countries pulled out of human rights comittee though, so don't expect internet there will be discussed about when it comes to human rights.

Click to expand...

Internet access a human right, the internet, that tool that allows to monitor millions of people.

ChienAboyeur said:

Internet access a human right, the internet, that tool that allows to monitor millions of people.

Click to expand...

To be fair, if you read history thats what they said about the telegraph, the telephone, cable services, metered electricity, and debit/credit cards.

Not saying you are wrong, but its not new.
Almost every amenity managed or regulated involves the trade of privacy or freedom for convenience.

So the access to those services were supposed to be human rights.

It seems that calling the access to a service jeopardizing human rights a human right only appears weird to simple minded people.

Superior minded people as usual manage to fabricate their own version to bypass the weirdness.

Access to internet service is not imho a "human right". However, it is a strong arm tactic employed by some countries to disable or dissuade such access. Having said that there is a social problem with social networks that needs an answer. I don't have the answer but there is a real problem.
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This is changing topics but the problem is that people are spurred by spontaneous action and social network do allow the spread of information (both true and false) at a pace faster than most people can digest and act in a reasonable manner. This has to do with the mob mentality. I don't have a fix for this issue other than people need to be better educated so they can think carefully and rationally.
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End of digression.

Egyptian riots are perfect example. The social media aspect aided the organization of the riots with incredible speed.
Even when interviewed a majority of respondents didnt really know why they were rioting, just that they were asked to respond to a major injustice and that was enough.
Is actually a fascinating case study which I'm sure is mirrored in many countries just not as analysed yet.

Wherever in world you see some sort of censorship or blocking of social networks, you also see some sort of dictatorship.

Also agreed, i see no solution.

Ivanwah said:

Wherever in world you see some sort of censorship or blocking of social networks, you also see some sort of dictatorship.

Click to expand...

Its an odd conundrum tho. Everyone demanded the removal of the facebook live murders, and even the three accident captures. That wasnt decried as censorship because it was for the apparent good of society. Yet the same critics flip whem violence or nudity is censored on the same channels as opression.

The Internet has been in its "flower power" age for a very long time now and this will of course change, and it is changing.

Youtube and Facebook is not what it used to be, for example. The Swedish prime minister has talked to Google and forced (""advised"") them to create changes that hurts alternative media (stopped them from being able to gain any money from ads, so he made them lose all or most of their income). Alt media is of course not very government friendly here so it was a big win for the government here.

If you are in EU you probably already know we will have a new law where you will not be allowed to post links to e.g news sites or create memes using copyrighted images. Practically any news aggregator site will be banned unless its run by rich businessmen who can pay up..

They claim its for copyright reasons or because you have to pay(!) if you link to a news site (which makes money from getting more visitors!), so we already know its bullshit and lies. Censorship is the real reason (we have plenty of alternative media sites in Sweden which directly would be considered illegal or would have to pay hefty prices to main stream media sites).

Of course, people will move blogs, news aggregators out of EU, people will begin to use VPN's even more. This will do for now, but the EU will come up with something else soon enough. Criminalizing the use of VPN's or something similar.

Taxing links is not a done deal. EU parliament will vote on that tomorrow. The result of that vote won't mean the final author rights law, but it'll set a direction for it.

IMO the whole thing is dangerous and can have serious consequences in gaming industry where critics won't be allowed to demonstrate a game's behavior just like that nor we'll see an interview with developers quotes here without permission/licensing. Also, fair use is not even mentioned in it, goodbye humor, goodbye Honest Game Trailers.
I've added it in weekly bs thread cca 10 days ago.