Source: Expression
by Tyler Tone
“Illinois can tax income. It can tax profits. It can tax businesses. It can even impose generally applicable taxes that happen to reach content mediums like cable or newspapers. But the First Amendment strictly prohibits taxes that single out content the state doesn’t like. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Illinois’[s] new state spending plan does, and it’s poised to soon be signed by Governor Pritzker. Buried in the 1600-page budget, the relevant provision would charge the secretary of state with collecting a ‘social media platform fee.’ … The proposal’s biggest hurdle is the decades of case law that have squarely labeled this kind of tax as exactly what it is: a regulation of speech. And social media sites are very much speech.” (06/12/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/illinois-doomed-plan-to-tax-social