19 Instagram photos that helped kill Hungary’s internet tax
Over the last few days, Hungarians sent a loud message to their government:
Do NOT mess with the internet.
It all started last Tuesday, when Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced a surprisingly new tax that would charge 62 cents (USD) for every gigabyte of data transferred over the internet.
People were seriously pissed. On Sunday night, thousands of Hungarians rallied at the economic ministry building and the Orban's ruling party headquarters in Budapest. They did some usual protest-y things: chanting, holding signs, marching. And some unsual protest-y things, like throwing obsolete computing equipment at those same government buildings. The protests grew, and on Tuesday, exactly one week after Orban's announcement, 100,000 Hungarians demonstrated in Budapest.
Orban backed down in record time.
"This tax in its current form cannot be introduced because the government wanted to extend a telecommunications tax, but the people see an internet tax," Orban told a local radio station on Oct. 31. "If the people not only dislike something but also consider it unreasonable then it should not be done… The tax code should be modified. This must be withdrawn, and we do not have to deal with this now."
Hungarian protesters used untold amounts of untaxed data to get images of the protests out to the wider world. Her are 19 Instagram photos that helped protect internet freedom by making use of it. Take notes, America, this is how you do it.
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