Activists put pressure on Benin to abolish social media taxes

Benin has introduced taxes on ‘open Internet services’ such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter which are not based in the country and therefore do not contribute to the local economy. Decree No. 2018-341 signed by President Patrice Talon in August requires that users pay 5 CFA francs (USD$0.008) per megabyte spent on these services. In addition, there is a 5% fee, on top of taxes, on texting and calls, as reported by the advocacy group Internet Sans Frontières (ISF). Activists in the region are calling for the abolition of social media taxes through a campaign dubbed #Taxepamesmo (Don’t tax my megabytes).