Taxing Dissent: The Impact of a Social Media Tax in Uganda

We examine the impact of a new tool for digital repression—a daily tax on social media use in Uganda. Using synthetic control framework and exploiting exogenous timing induced by legislative calendar, we estimate that reduced number georeferenced Twitter users 14 percent. The effects are larger poorer less frequent users. Despite overall decline use, tweets referencing collective action observed protests both increased around onset relative to control. high salience as repression its composition two potential mechanisms this backlash effect.