Germany Considers New Digital Tax on Google and Meta

Hey, so get this, Germany's thinking about hitting big online companies like Google and Facebook with a 10% tax. Yeah, like a digital tax on their sales there. This could cause some drama, ya know, with trade stuff, especially 'cause Trump's been pretty vocal about not letting other countries tax US companies that way. It's kinda wild how these huge companies make tons of cash in Germany from all their media and culture, but don't really pay much back.

Germany's new minister for culture, Wolfram Weimer, is pushing for this. He's even calling out these platforms for 'cunning tax evasion' and wants to maybe talk to them about other ideas, like them just giving some money voluntarily. He says these guys are making billions in Germany with crazy high profits but barely pay taxes, don't invest enough, and honestly, give back way too little to the community. Seriously, billions and they're not contributing much? Kinda makes you think.

Now, the ruling parties in Germany talked about a digital tax earlier this year, but it wasn't exactly a top priority then. So this proposal from Weimer isn't totally official yet. But if they go through with it, Germany would join a bunch of other countries, like the UK, France, and Canada, who already have a similar tax. Remember how Trump went after some of those countries with investigations and even threatened tariffs back when he was president? He's even told his trade guy to look into doing that again if countries tax US tech companies.

But honestly, it seems like the new German government, which just started this month, isn't backing down. Weimer is also worried that these big platforms are getting too powerful, almost like monopolies, which he says isn't good for competition or even for freedom of speech. Like, imagine if Google just decided to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America because Trump told them to. Weimer used that as an example of the crazy power they have. It's pretty wild to think about, right? What do you think about all this?