Australia plans to create a new law to force major technology companies Meta, Google, and TikTok to pay for journalistic content. If they do not strike commercial deals with local outlets, these companies could be taxed at about 2% to 2.25% of their revenues in the country. If approved, the measure could take effect from July 1.
Called the News Bargaining Incentive (loosely translated as a “News Bargaining Incentive”), the bill in the drafting stage seeks to finance Australian journalism by distributing the funds raised to media companies. The priority would go to those that employ the most journalists or that do not have prior agreements with the big tech companies.
The platforms criticize the bill to pay for journalistic content, arguing that this levy would be an unfair tax and that it could make news organizations dependent on government subsidies.
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The Australian government argues that Meta, Google, TikTok and other so-called “big tech” companies profit from news produced by third parties and, therefore, should pay for them.
“People are increasingly receiving news directly from Facebook, TikTok and Google, and we believe that it is fair for the major digital platforms to contribute to the hard news work that enriches their feeds and drives their revenue,” said the Communications Minister, Anika Wells, at a press conference, according to Reuters. “The platforms should strike deals with news organizations. If they choose not to do so, they will end up paying more,” she said.
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that Australia will make decisions based on the national interest rather than worrying about reprisals from the United States President, Donald Trump, since Meta and Google are American companies.
Note that the bill does not apply to companies that provide generative artificial intelligence tools, such as OpenAI, Perplexy or Google itself. Australia has specific legislation for that.
Meta said that funding local media would create a “news industry dependent on a government-administered subsidy scheme.” “This bill, which would apply to the platforms regardless of whether journalistic content even appears in our services, is nothing more than a tax on digital services,” the company said.
The Google also opposes the taxation proposal. “While we are reviewing the bill, we have already made clear: we reject the need for this tax,” the company said. ByteDance, which runs TikTok, did not comment.
New Deal
The new proposal replaces earlier rules from 2021, when Australia led a regulatory clash against the big techs by approving the News Media Bargaining Code. The law required digital platforms to negotiate payments with media companies for the use of journalistic content, with arbitration provisions if no agreement was reached.
Before its approval, there was strong reaction from technology companies. While Google threatened to withdraw its search engine from the country, Meta briefly blocked news publishing on Facebook in Australia. After adjustments to the legislation, the platforms began to sign direct deals with outlets, resulting in meaningful payments to the media sector in various countries. This payment model, however, expired in 2024.
According to a LinkedIn post by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, professor of communication at the University of Copenhagen, the development of the new Australian project lacks transparency.
“From a public policy formulation standpoint, I find it hard to understand why there remains a political preference to encourage opaque private deals. A direct levy, introduced by politicians who take responsibility for both who should pay and who should receive, seems a much clearer, more transparent, and predictable model,” he writes.
For him, direct subsidies for media companies can be funded with taxes on specific sectors, as France does to support the film industry, or with general taxes, as Denmark does.
