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France and US reach agreement on internet tax after tariffs threat from Trump

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that G7 members had reached an agreement on the taxation of tech giants, a long-running subject of friction between France and the US.

Published: 26 August 2019 17:30 CEST

France and US reach agreement on internet tax after tariffs threat from Trump

The 'GAFA' tax is named after Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. Photo: AFP

“On the digital tax we have reached a deal to get beyond the difficulties we had between us,” Macron told a press conference with US President Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Biarritz, adding France would scrap its own digital tax once the new international levy is in place.

Trump had reacted furiously to French plans to tax multi-national giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, threatening to retaliate with tariffs on French wine.

READ ALSO French winemakers face anxious wait over US tariff threat

The French law nicknamed the GAFA tax would require companies to pay a three percent tax on digital gross sales in France from January 1st, 2019.

Many tech giants such pay virtually no tax in countries where they make vast profits, due to how they declare they global income.

The French tax was introduced after Macron failed to persuade other European leaders to implement an EU wide tax on tech firms, but Macron had always been hopeful that an international agreement could be reached.

He has said that France's tax would be scrapped once a new international levy is in place.

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Danish government party demands ban on messaging app Telegram

Abuse in the form of “shaming” (Danish: udskamning) is frequently directed at women with Middle Eastern backgrounds within large Danish groups on the app, and the Social Democrats therefore want it blocked in the country, equality minister Trine Bramsen and Mayor of Odense Peter Rahbek Juel said in an interview with newspaper Berlingske earlier this week.

“We have unfortunately seen some terrible examples and a lot of examples of the social media Telegram in particular being used to humiliate young ethnics [minorities, ed.] – particularly young women – and to shame them, well aware that it could have the consequence that their families exclude them or even do worse,” Bramsen said to news wire Ritzau.

The party also wants to clamp down on videos that intentionally provoke “negative social control”, they also said.

The Social Democrats have long held that people from minority backgrounds who live in Denmark can be subjected to social control, for example by parents, families or peer groups, which prevents them from fully engaging in society.

Bramsen and Juel said that criminal punishments should be raised for sharing images or videos where there is an “expectation” that they could result in “serious consequences related to negative social control”.

The party shared what it considers to be some of the offending content with Berlingske. It said this was posted by “apparently Danish boys and girls as well as young people with non-Danish ethnic heritage”. The examples come from a Telegram group with over 10,000 members.

Bramsen said that a ban Telegram would “to a greater degree” be an EU matter, but that she still wants to block the app in Denmark as soon as possible.

“Against other types of … illegal content, it’s possible to put up some filters. It will be a case for the courts in the end. But we must, through legislation, ensure that the right laws are in place,” she said.

“I don’t think we can look the other way as platforms are used for crime again and again and put young people’s lives in danger,” she said.

“You can ask yourself the obvious question of whether we should transfer the same legislation that applies in the physical world where you can close places down and apply bans on assembling at places where crime is repeatedly committed,” she said.

Telegram was launched in Russia in 2013.

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