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<div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">These messaging apps facilitate fake news, crime, foreign meddling (to subvert democracy), brainwashing and hate speech on a massive scale. We know this for a fact. </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">So as citizens and stakeholders in our country, we need to ask: what do we value more, is it things that improve peace, stability, economic development and democracy, OR, is it some utopian, unbounded notion of free speech and privacy that is disconnected from our contextual reality (e.g. protects criminals, malicious defamers and violence mongers in equal proportion as law abiding citizens)?</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The companies running these uncontrolled messaging platforms will not be impacted if our country goes up in flames. They cost governments tons of money in maintaining internal security (especially during democratic transitions - sometimes to existential levels) yet they don't pay any taxes... and mark you, they are *billion dollar* companies! This also means that funds that ought to have bought, say, medicine to save lives gets diverted to fix an *imported problem* with no path to holding the parent company accountable for damage caused.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Gok needs to modernize our tax laws, which currently are based on the traditional "for profit" enterprise model and thus out of touch with Silicon Valley's "make losses by design" model. The basic assumption that entrepreneurship is a profit oriented endeavour does not hold for Silicon Valley VC subsidized companies. They are designed to operate as loss makers for decades (but still move *massive* amounts of financial resources at massive scale). This has the technical effect of *tax avoidance* because massive profits *are* still being made by the offshore VCs - which denies governments billions in taxes (despite imposing local burdens as illustrated above). </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">A smart government would create modernized laws to tax VC funded Silicon Valley companies e.g. on the basis of *funding rounds* and *valuations* because this is their *real* business i.e. its how the investors intend to make money from day one - and the primary reason they push for perpetual losses!</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">There should also be a turnover tax and VAT on online revenue earned in Kenya by foreign billion dollar internet companies (e.g. advertisement revenue and appstore revenue), to level the tax playing field for local businesses. Similar to what other countries like the UK are working on: </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 16px;">https://www.wired.co.uk/article/facebook-uk-tax-bill</span></font><br></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><br></span></font></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">CA will obviously have a hard time monitoring and enforcing though, under the current traditional framework due to technical barriers (e.g. encryption) and also due to jurisdictional challenges. </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">So the other thing that CA really needs to do once the rules are set is to consider blocking non-compliant foreign apps completely at ISP level (especially now that political temperatures are cool and people and thinking clearly). Lets have local startups filling any gaps with copycat apps China-style. </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">To be clear, I support free speech and privacy. But I also support peace, stability, safe neighbourhoods, democracy, sovereignty and economic predictability!</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">A delicate balance is needed to maximise the rights of law abiding citizens while minimising the ability of those with evil intent to exploit basic rights in order to harm the innocent.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Good day.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Patrick.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></div>
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On Thursday, November 1, 2018, 11:00:44 PM GMT+3, Grace Githaiga via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
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<div><div style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:colfaxregular, sans Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><p style="margin-bottom:15.6px;color:rgb(93, 93, 93);font-size:17px;font-family:georgia, century w01;line-height:25px;">Kenya is considering regulating online services such as WhatsApp and Skype in a radical move that could force the internet-based service providers to share data with the government.</p></div><div><p style="color:rgb(93, 93, 93);font-family:georgia, century w01;font-size:17px;margin-bottom:15.6px;line-height:25px;">The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) is in search of a consultant to study and determine how the so-called over-the-top services (OTTS) operated by groups such as Facebook, which runs WhatsApp, and Skype owner Microsoft, could be regulated.</p><font color="#333333" face="colfaxregular, avantgardegothicitcw01b 731069, nimbus sans tw01, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:16px;">Read on: https://www.nation.co.ke/business/Telcos-regulator-seeks-to-monitor-WhatsApp/996-4833020-fn9u7s/index.html</span></font><br><br><br></div>
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Best regards<br>
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Githaiga, Grace<br>
<br><br><div id="ydpae0de249yiv2708481342EmailSignature" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Co-Convenor<br>
Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet)<br>
Twitter:@ggithaiga<br>
Tel: 254722701495<br>
Skype: gracegithaiga<br>
Alternate email: <a class="ydpae0de249yiv2708481342normal-link" href="mailto:ggithaiga@hotmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ggithaiga@hotmail.com</a><br>
Linkedin: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga" class="ydpae0de249yiv2708481342normal-link" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga</a><br>
www.kictanet.or.ke<br>
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"Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama.</div><br></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>kictanet mailing list<br><a href="mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke</a><br><a href="https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet</a><br>Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/kictanet" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/kictanet</a><br>Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/</a><br>Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke<br><br>Unsubscribe or change your options at <a href="https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/pmaina2000%40yahoo.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/pmaina2000%40yahoo.com</a><br><br>The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.<br><br>KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.<br></div>
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