Social media Bloggers and general feature websites run on open source platforms that are now targeted as a source of Taxes by Government. A Policy alert coming in from Tanzania shows that bloggers, feature websites now have to adhere to specific terms of operation together with an annual license fee of 903 dollars.
In Uganda, the Uganda communication commission (UCC) recently showed interest in licensing all forms of blogs, social media bloggers, and Vloggers with new regulatory policies. However, as Tanzania clearly made its intentions right resulting from the president’s call over lies spread on the internet. UCC, on the other hand, has not issued any public notice so far about the need to Tax all online services.
The Tanzania communications regulatory Authority (TCRA) issued the trending license fees to all forms of online media including radio and TV blogs. Apart from the $900 license fee, websites with a comments section were banned from allowing any form of anonymous users, implying everyone has to be known. However, since Tanzania is part of the East African Community (EAC) it will be no shock when UCC turns up with a similar policy as to block a few of the ever-rising online startups that are currently hindered by the set ICT policies.
Online startups were projected as the future that will replace ordinary forms of media. Henceforth, government’s plans to tax all online media platforms may rave into another startups blockage or eventually turn Africa into a no free zone since all trendy information sources will soon be taxed with social media platforms in the limelight.
