Thousands of Hungarians gathered in Budapest on Sunday to demand the withdrawal of a legislation which will impose a tax on the use of internet.

Tens of thousands of Hungarians rallied in front of Budapest's Economy Ministry building, in an effort to halt the proposed law, which will impose a payment of 150 forints or US$0.62 for internet service providers (ISP's), for every gigabyte of internet data traffic transferred between networks.

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Despite the statute of the legislation stating that internet service providers will be able to offset company's income tax against the new levy, protesters say that it is still "anti-democratic" and majority of the tax will be shouldered by the common users.

According to Reuters, several companies, including the Association of IT, Telecommunications and Electronics Companies, has already announced plans of increasing their prices.

The protest was organized in Facebook through a page which has more than 210,000 followers.

The page stated that the demonstration would be in response to the "alarming anti-democratic measures" made by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which will push Hungary further away from Europe.

In addition, it said that the legislation would prevent  equality with regards to accessing the Internet, and in turn would widen the gap between the nation's lower economic group and limit Internet access for some schools and universities.

During the rally, protesters held their mobile phones up in the air and lighted up the front of the ministry building with the phone screens.

Other aggressive demonstrators threw old computer parts at the gates of the Fidesz party building.

Meanwhile, the organizers of the rally calls the movement as "100,000 against the internet tax" and has vowed a repeat of the protest on Tuesday, if the legislation is not withdrawn within two days.

According to Bloomberg, the ruling Fidesz party has already announced that it will submit an amendment to the legislation on Monday, which will limit an individuals tax to 700 forints (US$2.9) per month.

Tagsinternet tax, hungary, budapest, World News, Europe