UN To Debate Taxing Internet Data

Wowsers writes "In an effort to get ever more taxes for doing absolutely nothing, the United Nations will consider a European proposal to tax the internet based on data that gets sent. The proposal is designed to get money from large bandwidth users like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Netflix. Smaller companies that have high bandwidth requirements could be forced off the internet due to the taxes. 'The sender-pays framework would likely prompt U.S.-based Internet services to reject connections from users in developing countries, who would become unaffordably expensive to communicate with, predicts Robert Pepper, Cisco's vice president for global technology policy.'"

Comments

My God

[killmenow]

Could politicians be more daft?

Re:My God

[Anonymous Coward]

They might consider tax on major car makers for using public roads

Re:My God

[lordholm]

The proposal is not written by european politicians, but rather by a an interest organization for european telecom operators.

Re:My God

[baturcotte]

Except that this isn't coming from the politicians...the proposal is the brainchild of European telecom companies, who are looking to make a cash grab because their uses are getting to high bandwidth US sites. Of course, I am amused how secret ITU treaty negotiations are bad when they negatively affect US companies, but how secret ACTA treaty negotiations are good when they protect US companies...

Re:My God

[MightyYar]

Of course, I am amused how secret ITU treaty negotiations are bad when they negatively affect US companies, but how secret ACTA treaty negotiations are good when they protect US companies...

I don't find that to be the prevailing opinion on Slashdot at all - I see very little defense of the ACTA treaty at all, let alone the secret negotiations.

Re:My God

[DragonTHC]

explain it this way, they're already taxed on that.

It's through electricity. Data is just structured electricity. They pay taxes on that already.

Re:My God

[Stormy Dragon]

The tax is really about rent seeking by European telecom companies. They're having trouble competing with US companies like google, facebook, etc. on a level paying field, so they're hoping to make it too expensive for them to operate in other countries, allowing local clones to take over the market.

Net Neutrality

[Bananatree3]

Taxes on services will just shut out the small guys. The internet isn't just for commerce (or just porn), it's for a ton of other things. The principle of Net Neutrality ensures equal bandwidth for all. This tax would just require profitability, when many sites barely run even.

Mod summary as insightful

[howardd21]

"In an effort to get ever more taxes for doing absolutely nothing"

That is the most insightful summary...ever

Re:Mod summary as insightful

[TapeCutter]

Yeah, why don't they do something useful like eradicating smallpox?

Re:Mod summary as insightful

[JaredOfEuropa]

The UN do a lot, and some of it is actually useful. My beef with the UN, and with pretty much every government ever, is that they are always seeking to extend their span of control beyond what can be considered reasonable, in terms of power, influence, money and taxation. But in democratic nations, government is held in check at least to some degree by its constituents. The problem with the UN (and the EU for that matter) is that there is pretty much no control over what they do. UN-crats and Eurocrats are not held in check by the mandate of their voters, nor by voters in the countries they represent, but only by their colleagues. If a majority of them agrees to something that is opposed by all of the people they are supposed to represent, it will still pass. And what politician will say no to a chance to extend their influence, or an opportunity to take a big wet bite out of some fat cat overseas company's profits?

I really fail to see why the UN or Europe (or anyone else) should be entitled to part of Google's profits. Because they use our infrastructure to make money? For "the privilege of serving non-U.S. users"? That privilege works both ways, and I as a European am (and should be) grateful for the privilege of having so many useful US-based services at my fingertips. I might also add that this infrastructure has already been paid for, by my monthly subscription fees and plenty of public money.

Of course, saying that there is no good reason to tax Google is naïve... they will tax Google because they can, and come up with a good reason. Something along the lines of: "revenues from this internet tax will be applied towards building infrastructure in underdeveloped regions". Enter the Telcos, who are eager to get a nice cut of the job of building that infrastructure. Probably why their lobbyists came up with this proposal in the first place.

Hands off, Europe!

[ChunderDownunder]

Fund your failed economy some other way.

Austerity and bailouts only prolong the suffering.

agreed.

[Anonymous Coward]

the majority of the real economy is small and medium business.

taxes, regulations, and bureaucratic nonsense destroy small and medium business, while giving government and large corporations total advantage, in fact they are working together. in this way, the big dogs get to buy up, or remove all the small fish.

and what do democrats and republicans do? they keep doing the same thing.

regulate and tax the real economy to death.

while ensuring their own survival and their corporate owners.

and if you think voting Democrat is going to address this, you're a fucking moron.

if you think MORE regulation, and more taxes, is going to fix this, you're a fucking moron.

Re:agreed.

[zill]

That's quite a lot of text you just sent. Are you sure you can afford the bandwidth tax on that?

Dear UN, please send a boat to retrieve your taxes

[PolygamousRanchKid]

. . . and anchor it in Boston Harbor. Your Internet taxes can be loaded the next morning, after your tea has been delivered.

And people wonder why the US holds it so tightly

[Schezar]

While unlikely (hopefully) to pass, this sort if thing is exactly the reason the United States has been so reluctant to give up its nominal control of the Internet's architecture, nevermind why so many technologists are tacitly OK with the US's continued dominance.

The nations of the world, given equal weight, err toward censorship, and many regimes with UN votes have deeply vested interests in clamping down on the extraordinary free-for-all of information exchange that the current Internet provides. I for one want the United Nations to have no role at this level, and both hope and expect the US to refuse ratification should it actually come to pass.

Article Doesn't Add Up

[rssc]

I actually read the linked article and also skimmed through the leaked documents. I really can't find the things that the article is claiming are in there. From what I can make out, the leaked documents talk about taxes when billing telecommunication across borders (e.g., to prevent taxing services twice), like mobile phone roaming. How the article claims that this is about taxing large companies like Google and stuff is really beyond me. Can anybody point me to the part where it says that?

The whole article just seems inflammatory and some kind of anti-UN, anti-European reflex. I suppose mission accomplished, the knee-jerk reactions are already pouring in...

Re:And people wonder why the US holds it so tightl

[webheaded]

And yet it's still the best option. No seriously though...I'm not saying this as "I AM AN AMURICAN" but moreso as...look at the shit the rest of your countries do with it. We have certainly fallen a long way, but the freedom of speech is still the most sacred right here and that affects things in a way that is very beneficial to the internet...even if we do fuck up sometimes. The thing is...our fuck ups seem small in comparison to the things that the nations of the UN would want to do. As the GP said...they tend to err toward censorship and the one thing I can still be proud of my country for is that they have an almost mindlessly addicted devotion to free speech.

Dont tax Data, tax IP.

[Lumpy]

IP and in Intellectual Property.

If the REcord companies claim that song is worth trillions in a law suit, ASK them where the Back taxes are on those Trillions. Software,Music,Movies,Books. Tax the stated "value" of them.

This fixes two things. 1 - Added revenue for the EU. 2 - stops ridiculousness in claims for Copyright Infringement. The company cant dare to claim $6500.00 per share of a song if they will be taxed at the new rate for it. Suddenly it fixes a legal and a financial problem overnight. They can stop paying Taxes on a piece of I.P. as soon as they release it as public domain. So old abandonware games, Old music music and old movies, will get released and not horded for no reason.