After Protests Continue, Hungary Dumps Stupid Internet Tax Idea
from the and-let-us-never-speak-of-it-again dept
Earlier this week, we wrote about widespread demonstrations against a monumentally stupid plan by the Hungarian government to tax internet usage on a per-gigabyte-downloaded plan. The protests caused the government to "modify" the plan and put a cap on how much tax would be charged, but that seemed to do little to stop the complaints -- and thus, the government is shelving the plan entirely, with Prime Minister Viktor Orban announcing that the "tax in its current form cannot be introduced." Of course, that leaves open the possibility of it coming back in "another" form. But perhaps Orban is learning not to take on the internet. An analysis from the BBC talks about why Orban backed down:Viktor Orban does not often back down, but he has done so on this occasion for several reasons.At the very least, this is yet another example of how the public is not willing to just roll over when politicians attack the internet.
- He saw how unpopular the tax was. He managed with one stroke to do something which opposition leaders had tried and failed to do for five years: unify his opponents
- He took on the best-organised community in the country - internet users - and lost
- The government's communication methods failed again - as they have with almost every major decision since Fidesz came to power
- "We are not Communists. We don't go against the will of the people," he said - a sign that growing comparisons between Fidesz and the old Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party are hitting the mark.
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Filed Under: hungary, internet tax, protests, viktor orban
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On one hand, awesome! Good for the Hungarians!
On the other... and yet the politicians keep trying. It's a big game of whack-a-mole, until the people change the rules by not just drawing lines in the sand and saying "no, you can't do that," but actually pushing back and getting positive laws passed instead.
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Governments get away going opposite with the people because the masses believe they can do nothing against it. We showed Hungary that this is not the case.
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Internet service providers already pay their taxes just like everyone else. So why add this additional tax?
It should also be noted that electricity companies (ie: General Electric) get all kinds of tax breaks and, IIRC, at least here in the U.S. they don't pay taxes(?).
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Re: Why does internet service get a pass?
From what I understand the Hungarian thing was something quite different.
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Sadly the U.S. goes against the will and interests of the people on a regular basis provided politicians get something in return.
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Because there was no lobby supporting your cause, give it time I have faith in all politicians.
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After all, there's a profit to be had.
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Whats next? Orbán says he is proud to be hungarian and BBC announces that fidesz is the new nazi party?
Friendly reminder, every party says that there were foreign agents in the crowd who wanted to turn the whole thing into a violent riot which is certainly a lot more intresting than a small 2euro tax.
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EU Commission rather than protests
Admittedly, spinning it this way sounds a lot cooler, but then again, reality usually doesn't make for such nice headlines.
http://euobserver.com/justice/126294
http://online.wsj.com/articles/eu-warns-hungary-over-i nternet-tax-plan-1414511855
http://news.yahoo.com/eu-slams-hungary-internet-tax-plan-bad-precedent-14 0648805.html
I know, that in my very few comments here I'm usually complaining about something, but that's only because I tend to hold Techdirt to (much) higher standards than most other publications.
Not even mentioning the fact that the European Commission put a lot of pressure on Hungary to scrap the proposed law is a little misleading at best though.
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GUess where GAME BOTS COME FROM
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