Australia introduces new rules to charge big tech for news
Seeks to force search and social media companies to come to an agreement with local media businesses
The Australian government has unveiled an initiative to address the power imbalance between tech giants and local media companies.
Minister for financial services, Stephen Jones, announced plans to introduce a new tax on large technology and social media firms, including Meta, TikTok and Google, if they fail to compensate Australian media organisations for hosting their content.
"The news bargaining initiative will ... will create a financial incentive for agreement-making between digital platforms and news media businesses in Australia," he said, as reported by Reuters.
The proposed rules, which take effect on 1st January, aim to create a financial incentive for tech platforms to reach commercial agreements with news media organisations.
The charge will apply to social media platforms and search engines with Australian revenues of more than $250 million.
This move is the latest pushback by Australia against largely US-based tech companies, and follows its recent ban on social media for children under 16.
The government believes that the rapid growth of digital platforms has disrupted the business model of local media, threatening the viability of public interest journalism.
Communications minister Michelle Rowland said that social media and search platforms should do more support quality journalism: "They need to support access to quality journalism that informs and strengthens our democracy," she said.
The tax, which could amount to millions, will be waived if tech companies voluntarily enter into commercial agreements with Australian media.
Social media companies were critical of the proposals, which ae the latest attempt by Australia and other jurisdictions to support local news media at a time when ad revenues are flowing increasingly to the tech giants.
A Meta spokesperson said, "The proposal fails to account for the realities of how our platforms work... most people don't come to our platforms for news content."
The move follows a move by Australia in 2021 to force tech companies to compensate local news organisations, with which Meta (then Facebook) and Google reluctantly complied.
However, Meta said it would not be renewing the agreement reached with News Corp and ABC beyond this year. The company has been stepping away from showing news content on all its social media platforms.
Last year, the New Zealand government introduced a Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill in a similar attempt, which Google criticised as a “link tax”, threatening to stop linking to news sources in the county from its search results.
The company also removed some links to California websites earlier this year after the state mulled new rules to make tech giants pay for news.
In 2023, Meta blocked users in Canada from reposting news content after its government took similar action. Google agreed to pay C$100 million annually to a fund supporting Canadian news organisations.