The protests last week in Hungary sparked by government plans to impose an internet tax illustrate how organized activism exercised peacefully can achieve its ends.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, now serving his third consecutive term in office presumably believed that his two thirds majority in parliament would allow him to get away with establishing a 50 eurocents tax per gigabyte use. He was wrong. A Facebook page was set up against the internet tax which soon attracted 200,000 followers (out of a population of 10 million), and was used to coordinate nighttime protest marches where protesters held their telephones aloft, creating a spectacular light show.

Following the protests, which brought around 37,000 people onto the streets, the government backed down, announcing a maximum of 2.26 euros per persona and some 16 euros a month for businesses. But people went back out on to the streets demanding that the tax be thrown out completely, which eventually the government has acceded to, saying, “We’re not communists and we don’t rule against the wishes of the people.”

Events in Hungary, show that it is perfectly legitimate to take to the streets to defend an open and free internet available to as many people as possible, however popular the government is; it also makes perfect sense that the government is prepared to change its plans in the face of widespread public opposition.

Parliamentary majorities do not give governments carte blanche to do what they like, against the wishes of the electorate: government measures and new laws should be subject to public scrutiny, and the government should listen to what people say, whether they say it in the streets, on line, or wherever. Believing that because one has a majority one can do what one likes is anti-democratic: votes win seats, but having those seats doesn’t give their occupants the right to govern against people’s wishes.