Revenue mobilisation or repression? Taxing online activities in Africa
Concerns are increasing over the power multinational platform companies like Meta or Twitter wield, while remaining untaxed in the countries where they generate value from data, including across the African continent. At the same time many African countries struggle to raise revenue. In this context, the attempts to levy taxes on online activities via excise duties on the use of social media data have been criticised for infringing on human rights. This article proposes an overview of the different types of taxes on online activities adopted across the African continent. It also sketches a theory of taxation of online activities based on the empirical comparison of Benin, Uganda, Rwanda, and Nigeria. It contributes to research on online repression and on the political aspects of taxing the digital sector and invites further research on this important issue.
