Maryland has approved the country’s first tax on the revenue brought in from digital advertisements placed by companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. On Friday, the State Senate voted to override the governor’s veto of the measure following a similar vote from the House of Delegates, The New York Times reports. The measure is expected to generate as much as $250 million in its first year.
There do appear to be legal risks to the measure, which will likely face stiff challenges in court over how much governments can tax social media and technology giants. Both opponents and analysts cautioned that the bill could run afoul of both the First Amendment and federal regulations preventing discriminatory taxes on internet companies, The Washington Post reported in January.
