La Taxe Google is back, this time to help French ISPs
What if Google reciprocated by turning off searches in France, or what if they adjusted SEO to return page URL’s residing in France at the bottom of the search lists? After all they would want to be taxed as little as possible.
It looks like the Internet Service Providers of France have a good friend in that country’s Minister of Industry and the Digital Economy, Eric Besson. Monsieur Besson is reviving an idea that will doubtless inspire the nation’s ISPs: La Taxe Google. This would boil down to a tithe upon the search engine giant and its social networking brethren, especially Facebook, to make up for the alleged fact that they don’t help pay to keep France’s broadband pipes in la manière to which they have grown accustomed.
“Some well-known services, like Google or Facebook, are ever-growing,” Besson complained to his Parliament this month, “without contributing in any way to finance infrastructure or creation.”