14 DAY TRIAL // Over the past years, it’s been made very clear that you just don’t mess with the Internet unless you want a riot on your hands. That’s what the Hungarian government should have thought about before considering putting in a tax on the Internet.
An estimated hundred thousand people took to the streets on Tuesday night in a demonstration that follows another that took place over the weekend, in which protesters demanded that legislation imposing a tax on Internet traffic be withdrawn.
The Hungarian government had already amended the controversial Internet tax bill, but that didn’t stop people from flooding the streets and saying that the country was turning anti-democratic and straying away from the European Union.
That’s partly because the amendment in itself was nowhere near what people wanted. The government said that there would be caps on the proposed tax at 700 forints, about $3 (€2.35) per month, for regular individuals, and 5,000 forints or $21 (€16.5) for companies.
The original proposed law would levy 150 forints ($0.6 / €0.5) per gigabyte of data traffic. Many said that this would urge people to stop pirating online content, but it would do more than that by putting a stop to online gaming, video and music streaming and many other activities that people normally do on the Internet. Such a move would basically suffocate the Internet usage in the country since people are unwilling to just pay more for their Internet connections.
Protesters from all social tiers
It wasn’t just users that protested against the new taxes, but also Internet service providers, who really don’t like the idea.
The crowd organized via Facebook and appeared to draw all types of people who are demanding not only for the planned tax to be repealed, but also for Viktor Orban, Prime Minister, to be ousted from his job.
Reuters quotes Zsolt Varady, Internet entrepreneur and founder of iwiw.hu, a local social network that has died in the meantime. “Iwiw motivated many people to get an Internet subscription. People were willing to pay for the service because they knew, saw and felt that their lives were becoming better. The Internet tax threatens the further growth of the Internet as well as freedom of information,” he said.
Even though the proposed amendment is much better than what was originally planned, it’s still extra money that would have to be paid by people who aren’t necessarily well off by any means.