2 weeks ago
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Digital giants including Meta, TikTok and Google could be forced to pay up to $250 million to the Australian government, which would then be distributed to media companies, if they refuse to strike deals to pay for local journalism.
Despite the risk of a backlash from the pro-tech Trump administration, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday released draft laws proposing a tax worth 2.25 per cent of tech firms’ revenue if they do not strike voluntary agreements with media companies to compensate them for news hosted on social media and search engines.
Australia has insisted in its public messaging that the charge on tech giants would not constitute a tax, which could trigger the ire of the US administration and possibly lead to tariffs on Australia.
The government said it would not put any revenue into Commonwealth coffers, insisting it would distribute money to media firms based on how many journalists they employ.
Albanese dismissed the Trump administration’s objections to the scheme during a press conference on Tuesday.
“We’re a sovereign nation,” the prime minister said.
“This is not about government revenue. Every single dollar will go back to journalists. We think that investment in journalism is critical to a healthy democracy. It matters.”
Albanese added that local journalism shouldn’t “be taken by a large multinational corporation and used to generate profits”.
The draft laws, which have been delayed for many months amid concern about the US reaction, were required after Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, pulled out of a Morrison-era scheme that drew in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for media companies.
Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino said social media sites with more than 5 million users and search sites with more than 10 million users would be covered by the proposed laws.
Meta said it would simply pull news off its platforms, prompting the government to re-jig its framework to guard against the risk of Meta blocking news links, as it has done in Canada for several years.
Meta, Google and TikTok have been contacted for comment.
Under the proposed scheme, platforms with more than $250 million in annual Australian revenue from significant social media or search services face the 2.25 per cent charge, which can be reduced to an effective 1.5 per cent if they strike commercial agreements with publishers.
The incentive is designed to encourage technology companies, which are worth trillions and control much of the distribution of information in the world, to pay much smaller publishing companies for their use of news reports that engage their users and help them to sell ads. The companies are also increasingly deploying AI chatbots and tools that reproduce and link to Australian journalism.
Companies such as Meta, which is the most antagonistic to the proposal, have argued the laws are unfair because they provide a service to the media by sending readers to their websites.
As this masthead previously reported, LinkedIn does not appear in the legislation’s initial scope despite distributing news to Australian users. The Microsoft-owned platform also has its own editorial team and dedicated news tab. Fellow tech giant Apple is also exempt.
The legislation arrives as commercial agreements struck under the 2021 code begin to expire.
Google remains the only major platform with active commercial agreements supporting Australian newsrooms, covering more than 90 news businesses and 226 outlets across national, regional and independent titles, according to the company. Meta ended its arrangements in March 2024.
Rod Sims, the former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair, told this masthead last week the urgency was “huge” and that he was “disappointed it wasn’t sorted out a year ago”.
More to come.
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