Australia is no slouch when it comes to big tech. Last month, the country introduced a law that, if passed, bans all people aged 16 and under from social media. Now, it’s coming after social media and search engines alike, making sure to pay publishers for their content after Meta pulled out of doing so, Financial Times reports. The Australian Taxation Office will manage to collect the money, although it should not benefit from the deal in any way, instead sending all profits to the media companies.
The new amendments will require any platform that generates more than $250 million (160 million USD) in additional Australian revenue to pay a fixed fee or create a direct agreement with publishers. In 2021, Meta and Google agreed to pay large and small Australian media companies more than AUD 200 million (USD 128 million) per year – although these agreements were largely enforced by law. Meta was funded earlier this year, saying its users don’t come to its platforms for news content.
Industry leaders such as Michael Miller, executive chairman of News Corp Australia, applauded the government’s latest move, Miller said, “This will provide the foundation to rebuild the media industry after the loss of approximately 1,000 jobs this year, and ensure that Australians’ media businesses will continue.” and to bring future journalism and professionalism, which has never been more important to united, democratic societies. “
Canada previously took a similar step, enacting a bill in 2023 that required social media and search engines to pay publishers. Meta responded by pulling news from the country but, when Google started threatening to take action, the company agreed to pay news publishers about 100 million CAD (71 million USD) each year.
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