Email Tax
photo taken from thecontentwrangler.com
In 1988, the Federal Communications Commission rejected a proposal to place a surcharge on computer data transmission via telephone lines. However, warnings about this raced through the Internet through electronic bulletin boards and e-mail in 1990 and 1991. The warnings had urged computer users to “make it clear that we will not stand for any government restriction of the free exchange of information!” Despite the fact that no legislation or regulation was even being considered, thousands of letters, petitions, and calls flooded government agencies and legislative committees.
There was a similar warning in 1999. It claimed that Congress was considering a tax of five cents per email message to support the USPS (United States Postal Service), which was going to lose a lot of money due to the new technology of E-mail. These fake warnings came complete with the congressional sponsor, number of the bill, the attorney working to fight the measure, and even a reference to an article in the Washingtonian published in March of that year. All of these stories were fake and the story can be traced to Canada. However, Canadian sources claim that the story had come from Arizona.
(Source:Brunvand, Jan H. Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. 2001.)
