How much sales tax are Facebook customers paying on their metadata purchases today? What component of that sale price or sales tax are being distributed back to the users or jurisdictions whose data was harvested? Is that a just economic outcome for everyone that isn’t Facebook?
I don’t know what the right answer is here, but I absolutely recognize the plausibility of the sort of claim being leveled here — even if tech would rather not. It’s basically just a proposed tariff on user exports from Italy, after all!
(Personally, I am looking forward to someone someday making a courtroom argument that providing free access to Facebook services without declaring a value, and without offering payment for use of one’s metadata as an alternative to unwanted services, is equivalent to valuing access those services at $0 and so back pay is owed their users-as-contractors. No one’s had the courage yet, but it’s nice to see we’re moving in the direction that might produce such outcomes.)
It's quite clear there is a transaction - with value - and a large part of these companies valuations and revenue is directly driven by the number of users.
as any rational entity should
Stop trying to rebrand selfishness as rationalism.
The USA took the chance it had after World War II to control and occupy large parts of the globe and fight senseless wars. US companies commit fraud and corruption in Europe at a horrifying scale and with systematic precision.
Europe here wants to protect the rights of its citizens and tax companies operating on their soil accordingly. Thinking of USA Inc. and its subsidiaries as the good guys here shows just how disconnected you are from what is going in the world.
Cherry-picking the upside while avoiding the downside is parasitic behavior.
> The digital services tax (Digital Service Tax) is applied at a rate of 3% on revenues deriving from the provision of services on a digital interface for targeted advertising to users of that interface, for the provision of a multilateral digital interface that allows users to connect and interact with each other, also for the purpose of facilitating the direct supply of goods or services for the transmission of data collected from users and generated by the use of a digital interface.
> In practice, taxation applies to digital advertising on websites and social networks, access to digital platforms, fees received by the operators of such platforms, and also the transmission of data “collected” from users. Revenue is taxable if the user of the digital service is located within the territory of the State. For online advertising services, the user is considered to be located in the territory of the State if the advertisement appears on their device when it is used in the territory of the State. The location of the device in Italian territory is determined on the basis of its IP address.
> Businesses that generate revenue in Italy from the above-mentioned digital services and that, during the calendar year preceding the one in which the tax liability arises, generate a total revenue of not less than €750 million anywhere in the world, either individually or as a group, are subject to the digital tax.
It seems for me a fair tax for corporations that take advantages of data collected to provide a service that someone pays (advertisements).
antiloper•4h ago
DrScientist•2h ago