The Australian government said on Thursday it would fine major digital platforms and search engines unless they agreed to share revenue with Australian news organisations.
Under the proposed new rules, any internet company that refuses to negotiate with publishers or removes news from its site – as Facebook owner Meta Platforms did in Canada – will be forced to pay regardless, Reuters reported.
Meta blocked links to news in Canada in August 2023 to avoid paying royalties to media companies. Since then, Canada has become the focus of Facebook’s battle with governments that have passed or are considering laws that force the internet giant to pay media companies for links to stories published on their platforms.
In Australia, the tax will apply from 1 January. to technology companies that earn more than 250 million Australian dollars ($227 million Cdn) a year in revenue from Australia, said Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland.
They include Meta, Google-owned Alphabet and ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok.
Meta is blocking Canadians’ news content on Instagram and Facebook after the government passed its online news law in June. But how does this compare to 2021, when Facebook blocked news on its platforms in Australia to protest the same law? We split the difference.
The tax will be paid out of money paid to Australian media organisations. The size of the tax is unclear. But the government intends to make sharing money with media organizations a cheaper option.
“The real aim … is not to raise money – we hope not to raise revenue. The real aim is to encourage the creation of an agreement between the platforms and media businesses in Australia,” Jones told reporters.
The move comes after Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced it would not renew three-year contracts to pay Australian news publishers for their content.
The previous government introduced laws called the News Media Bargaining Code in 2021 that forced tech giants to strike profit-sharing deals with Australian media companies or face fines of up to 10 percent of their Australian revenue.
Meta said in a statement that the current law is not flawed and that the American company continues to be “concerned about taxing one industry to subsidize another.”
“This proposal fails to explain the realities of how our platforms work, especially that most people do not come to our platforms to find news content and that news publishers voluntarily choose to post content on our platforms because they receive a profit from doing so,” the statement said.
Google raises doubts that are worth approaching
Google has reached revenue-sharing agreements with more than 80 Australian media companies over the past three years and is committed to renewing those deals.
But Google has raised doubts about the government’s new approach.
“The government’s introduction of targeted taxation threatens the continued viability of commercial agreements with media publishers in Australia,” Google said in a statement.
“We are reviewing today’s announcement and will have more to say once we assess the full impact,” Google added.
TikTok noted that its users did not seek news.
“As an entertainment platform, TikTok has never been a news destination. We will actively participate in the consultation process and look forward to hearing more information,” TikTok said in a statement.
‘It is not a tax in the ordinary sense of the word’
Jones said Australian officials had explained the government’s intentions to their counterparts in the United States, where most of the digital giants are headquartered. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration plans to raise tariffs on some countries, which could spark trade wars.
“We want to make sure they understand the concept, and they understand that this is not a tax in the normal sense of the word,” Jones said.
“This is an incentive to strengthen existing legislation in Australia from 2021.”
A new law in Australia will require TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media companies to take steps to keep users under 16 off their platforms or face fines. The National’s Ian Hanomansing asks tech reporter Carmi Levy to explain how realistic this type of ban is and whether it’s something Canada should consider.
Rowland said the devolution was necessary to protect Australia’s democracy.
“The rapid growth of digital platforms in recent years has disrupted the Australian media landscape and threatens the practice of public interest journalism,” Rowland said.
“The policy objective here is very clear. It is to encourage deals between digital platforms, search engines and Australian news publishers to support the health of our democracy.”
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