Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) boss Godfrey Mutabazi said telecoms will slowly, one by one block VPN Apps that are aiding Ugandans to evade paying the social media tax according to the Weekly Observer. VPN search keyword in Uganda has spiked in traffic in the last two days according to Google Trends which means a lot of Ugandans are searching to VPNs apps right now to evade the tax.
How will Telecoms block VPNs?
A VPN only hides your IP address as well as the contents of whatever you are browsing online. This is how its possible to browse a specific website if it’s blocked in your country. However, to connect to a VPN provider, you still go through your Internet Service Provider(ISP) or Telcom for this matter. If the Telecom knows the VPN provider you are connecting to, then they can effectively block any traffic (even though they have no idea what it is) going to that provider’s IP address. So Telecoms will learn and compile a list of popular VPN provider IPs and block them unless of course you have paid the OTT tax.
