
A state lawmaker in Arizona is proposing a tax on online porn to help fund President Trump’s border wall.
The bill from Republican Rep. Gail Griffin seeks to collect the tax by first requiring device vendors in the state to install porn-blocking software on the hardware. To get the software de-activated, you’ll have to pay a $ 20 fee, which will go toward building Trump’s border wall, and other special state projects.
The bill was first reported on by the Arizona Mirror, which noted that similar legislation has been proposed in other states, such as Virginia, Kentucky and Alabama. However, the bill from Griffin adds a new twist by demanding that some of the tax funds help pay for a wall between Mexico and Arizona.
Money made from the proposed porn tax would be sent to a state fund under the control of the Arizona’s commerce authority, which would then issue grants to a list of special projects. At the top of the list is funding for the border wall and border security. But other projects include supplying “physical and mental health services,” providing housing, and preventing human trafficking.
Of course, implementing the law wouldn’t be easy. Every major PC, smartphone and tablet vendor in the state would not only need to install the porn filters, but also make sure the software isn’t blocking any legitimate content. They’d also have to somehow prevent customers from learning how to uninstall the porn-filtering software.
It isn’t clear if the bill has a real chance of passing, but Arizona’s House of Representatives is only narrowly controlled by the Republican Party, which holds 31 seats to the Democrats’ 29. To become law, the bill itself needs to secure a two-thirds vote to in both the house and the senate before getting signed by Arizona’s governor.
If the legislation does gain traction, it can count on facing a challenge from free speech advocates on claims that it violates the US Constitution and amounts to a censorship tax.