Hungary proposes taxing internet usage -- will other countries follow suit?

You might think that you've already paid enough to get online. You bought your computer (or phone, tablet, whatever...), you pay line rental to your phone provider, you pay your monthly broadband charges, you pay the bill for electricity all of this requires. How does the idea of an extra charge on top of this sound? No? That's the general feeling in Hungary where an "internet tax" has been proposed by Viktor Orban's right wing government.

The Prime Minister proposes taxing internet usage in a similar way to mobile phone companies -- by tracking traffic levels. How much could this end up costing? Well, it could very quickly add up. The draft law suggests a fee of 150 forints (around $0.60) per gigabyte. To put that in perspective, it would cost more than $2 to download the Windows 10 Technical Preview, and around the same amount to upgrade to the latest build 9860.

There is, understandably, something of an uproar about this in Hungary -- the proposed tax in general, that is, not the specific costs of downloading a preview version of Windows. Detractors say that it is the poor who will be hardest hit, and the country has witnessed mass demonstrations in protest. Orban's response to criticism has been to suggest capping the tax at 700 forints per month -- meaning that internet usage beyond 4.6 GB is essentially "free".

Slapping an extra $2.80 on top of internet usage charges might seem like very little, but opponents of the new tax say that it is undemocratic. For many people struggling to make ends meet, $2.80 is a significant chunk of money. But that's not the point, at least it is not the only point. What is particularly concerning here is that this amounts to a tax on the flow of information. The internet is used for many things -- email, job searches, work-related research, and so on. File your taxes online under such a regime and you're basically being taxed for doing so.

There are currently all manner of programs underway at the moment that have the aim of bringing internet access to developing parts of the world. The threat of taxing this fabulous resource is worrying. The internet is something that should be accessible to all, and any plans that put even the smallest of obstacles in the way of those who want to use it should be passionately opposed.

Photo credit: Stuart Miles / Shutterstock