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How Media Taxes Can Burden News Outlets: The Case of Uganda

In July 2018, the government of Uganda implemented a tax on individual users of Media platforms. In the first three months following the introduction of the tax in the country, internet penetration dropped from 47 percent to 35 percent. Given that a significant amount of news circulation now happens via Media and messaging apps, how might this new tax impact the news media ecosystem? The negative effects on news media are less direct and arguably more pernicious than might be expected.