Australia moves to tax Meta, Google, and TikTok to fund newsrooms

Australia has proposed taxing digital giants Meta, Google, and TikTok on a part of their revenue to pay for news reporters. In April, the government released the draft legislation it intends to introduce to Parliament by July 2 that would create a financial incentive for social media companies to strike deals with news organizations to pay for journalism. The social media platforms’ criticisms included that the proposal was a “digital services tax” that misunderstood the evolving advertising industry and would fail to deliver a sustainable news sector. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a monetary value needed to be attached to journalists’ work. “It shouldn't just be able to be taken by a large multinational corporation and used to generate profits for that organization with no compensation appropriate for the people who produce that creative content,” Albanese told reporters. “We think that investment in journalism is critical to a healthy democracy,” he added. It's Australia’s second legislative attempt to make the platforms pay for the Australian news text and images that their users view. Digital platforms had been pressured to strike deals with Australian news publishers to pay for journalism by legislation passed in 2021 that created the country's News Media Bargaining Code. The platforms chose to reach commercial deals with news creators rather than be forced into arbitration and have a judge set the price. But they have since avoided renewing those deals by removing news from their services. The proposed News Bargaining Incentive would charge a 2.25% tax on the Australian revenue of major platforms that choose not to strike commercial deals with news publishers. The platforms would be given offsets, and their overall costs would be lowered if they agree to pay publishers for journalism, the government said. The government expects the incentive would raise between 200 and 250 million Australian dollars ($144 and $179 million) a year. That was about as much as the platforms paid news outlets when the News Media Bargaining Code was working at its peak. The government would distribute that income among news organizations based on how many journalists each organization employed, Communication Minister Anika Wells said. This article was provided by The Associated Press.