'Tax net giants to give every 18-year-old €50k'

A possible candidate for the presidency of the Parti Socialiste has proposed using the proceeds of a tax on internet giants to give every teenager in France a €50,000 windfall when they reach the age of 18.

Julien Dray, a conseiller régional for Île-de-France who has shown an interest in running for the leadership of the party but has not yet formally declared that he will run, made the suggestion during an interview with BFMTV.

He proposed that a tax on internet giants Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon would cover the €42billion it would take to pay the five-figure sum to each of the 847,000 teenagers in France who are due to turn 18 in 2020.

He argued that he wanted to redistribute some of the wealth that the multinationals make by selling and using personal data. "You and I are algorithms, and we work ever day," he said.

Each person would be free to decide what they should do with their windfall, he insisted.