Ugandans Demonstrate over WhatsApp Tax

Ugandan police have fired tear gas and live bullets into the air to disperse a small protest over the social media tax.
The police also tried to arrest the leader of the protest, MP and musician Robert Kyagulany, who is popularly known as Bobi Wine, but he managed to escape.

The tax, introduced at the beginning of the month, requires people to pay 200 Uganda shillings [$0.05, £0.04] before they can use services like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.

Parliament approved the tax in May after President Yoweri Museveni had pushed for the changes, arguing that social media encouraged gossip. But some argue that it is a way of restricting critical comments about the government.

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