Australia wants to make digital platforms pay for news – even if it bans them, as Meta did here

The Australian government said on Thursday it would tax large digital platforms and search engines unless they agreed to share revenue with Australian news media organisations.

Under the proposed new rules, any internet company that refuses to negotiate with publishers or removes news from its platform – e.g Facebook owner Meta Platforms did this in Canada – He will have to pay regardless, Reuters reported.

Meta links to news are blocked in Canada in August 2023 to avoid paying fees to media companies. Since then, Canada has been ground zero for Facebook’s battle with governments that have enacted or are considering laws that would force internet giants to pay media companies for links to news published on their platforms.

In Australia, the tax will apply from Jan. 1 to technology companies that generate revenues of more than A$250 million ($227 million Canadian) annually from Australia, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.

Among them are Meta, Alphabet, which owns Google, and ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok.

The tax will be offset by funds paid to Australian media organisations. The size of the tax is not clear. But the government aims to make revenue sharing with media organizations the cheapest option.

“The real goal…is not to raise revenues – we hope we don’t raise any revenues. The real goal is to stimulate agreements between platforms and news media companies in Australia,” Jones told reporters.

The move comes after Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced it would not renew three-year deals to pay Australian news publishers for their content.

A previous government introduced laws called the News Media Bargaining Code in 2021, which forced tech giants to strike revenue-sharing deals with Australian media companies or face fines of 10 per cent of their Australian revenue.

Meta said in a statement that the current law is flawed and that the US company still has “concerns about imposing tariffs on one industry to support another.”

“The proposal fails to take into account the realities of how our platforms work, namely that most people do not come to our platforms for news content and that news publishers voluntarily choose to publish content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so.” The statement said.

Google raises doubts about the approach

Google has entered into revenue-sharing agreements with more than 80 Australian news companies in the past three years and has committed to renewing those agreements.

But Google has raised doubts about the government’s new approach.

Google said in a statement: “The government’s imposition of a targeted tax threatens the continuity of business deals with news publishers in Australia.”

Google added: “We are reviewing today’s announcement and will have more to say once we evaluate the full impact.”

TikTok noted that its users are not looking for news.

“As an entertainment platform, TikTok has never been the place to get news. We will actively participate in the consultation process and look forward to hearing more details,” TikTok’s statement said.

“It is not a tax in the normal sense of the word.”

Jones said Australian officials explained the government’s intentions to their counterparts in the United States, where most digital giants are headquartered. The administration of President-elect Donald Trump is planning to increase tariffs against some countries, which could lead to trade wars.

“We want to make sure they understand the logic, and also understand that this is not a tax in the normal sense of the word,” Jones said.

“This is an incentive to strengthen the law that has been in place in Australia since 2021.”

Rowland said revenue sharing was essential to protecting Australian democracy.

“The rapid growth of digital platforms in recent years has disrupted Australia’s media landscape and threatens the viability of public interest journalism,” Rowland said.

“The policy goal here is very clear. It is to stimulate deals between digital platforms, search engines and Australian news publishers in order to support the health of our democracy.”