It’s rare for the usually aloof and cautious European Union commissioners in Brussels to call for street demonstrations in one of the EU’s member states. But since none of the their badgering had blunted the power plays of Hungary’s autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the EU commissioner for digital issues, Neelie Kroes, tweeted support for Hungary’s protesters. They took to the streets last week to protest Orban’s latest attempt to curtail anti-government opinion: a proposed nationwide tax on Internet data traffic — an attack on the country’s the last free platform for free thinking and dissent.

In stark contrast to most of the EU’s admonishing, the protests in Budapest and 10 other Hungarian cities — the biggest demonstrations in recent history — appear to have made Orban stop and rethink. In an unprecedented about-face, he announced Hungary will not pursue the tax, marking an important victory for online freedom not just in Hungary but worldwide. It could signal the beginnings of a new citizen-led movement against Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party, which have made turned Hungary into an increasingly illiberal, authoritarian state since it came to power in 2010.

The proposed tax would have put a 63 cent levy on every gigabit of information accessed over the Internet, costing the average Internet user a maximum of $2.87 a month. This kind of tariff already exists in other countries and has been criticized for diminishing productivity and private sector innovation. According to a recent report by the U.S.-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, these types of taxes and tariffs come in different forms and are usually imposed by poor countries interested in building their domestic information and communication technology (ITC) industries. The U.S. and the EU have very low charges; the only European country with significant ITC fees is Greece.

Yet the main purpose of Hungary’s proposed tax — which its critics say the government has backed away from but not yet abandoned — was to further consolidate Orban’s virtually complete hold on power and keep the beleaguered opposition marginalized. Given the government’s moves against independent media, with all but a handful of outlets eliminated, the Internet has become vital to Hungarians critical of their government. The tax would have hurt lower-income Hungarians and foreign providers operating in Hungary the most.

Amy Brouillette, an American who is the director of the European Media Project at the Central European University in Budapest, says Orban has long been using taxes and other charges as tools to control the media. “It’s not new but part and parcel of his drive to push private and foreign operators out of the market,” she told me. “It would be very dangerous — the creation of a digital iron curtain around Hungary.” Though she says it’s notable that he withdrew the bill in response to public outcry, she’s not convinced that this is the last Hungary has heard about the initiative and considers it merely a strategic retreat.

The demonstrations come in a year that has delivered the Fidesz leadership triumphs and, as of late, some stinging setbacks. In all three elections held this year — national, EU and local — Fidesz has further entrenched itself in power, with no significant opposition force rising to challenge it. In the spring parliamentary elections, Fidesz received another two-thirds supermajority, essentially allowing Orban to continue to make policy at will. In the May vote for Hungary’s representatives in the European Parliament, Fidesz captured 51 percent of the votes. Coming in second, with 16 percent, was the xenophobic, ultra-right Jobbik party, in a testament to the dismal state of political culture in the country. In local elections, Fidesz candidates won control of all county assemblies and all but one of the largest cities.