The much criticized implementation of  new social media tax in Uganda is justified by the country’s President Yoweri Museveni . He is  saying that the majority of Ugandans were using social media platforms for lying and the nation’s currency were given to foreign- owned telecom firms. According to Museveni’s tweet  social media is meant for luxury loving people who want to enjoy themselves and also used by people who are malicious. He felt that the people of his country are giving money to foreign companies through unnecessary chatting . He justifies this as a reason to levy tax on online services.

Uganda’s parliament had passed new tax laws that introduced a levy of 200 shillings ($0.05) per day for access to a range of online services. The online services that have been identified by the country's revenue service for the tax include Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, YouTube, Skype, Yahoo Messenger and many others. The tax seems to be an equivalent amount to what Ugandans pay for their mobile data plans.

Uganda's two biggest telecom firms are owned by South Africa's MTN Group and India's Bharti Airtel, while other small players are also mostly foreign-owned. Most of the Ugandan mobile phone users feel the levying of tax for online services is  unfair and this intrudes into their freedom .They feel the tax is an insult to Ugandans when they already pay for buying mobile data. Amnesty International has already called on the government to remove the tax but the government doesn’t seem to be in a mood to scrap the tax levied on online services.