Australia has proposed taxing digital giants Meta, Google and TikTok a share of their revenue to fund news reporters.
The government released draft legislation Tuesday that it plans to introduce to Parliament by July 2, creating a financial incentive for social media companies to strike deals with news organisations to pay for journalism.
Platforms criticised the proposal as a “digital services tax” that misunderstands the changing advertising industry and would not produce a sustainable news sector.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said journalists’ work needs a monetary value attached. “It shouldn’t just be able to be taken by a large multinational corporation and used to generate profits for that organisation 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.”
This is Australia’s second legislative effort to make platforms pay for the Australian news text and images their users view. Legislation passed in 2021 created the News Media Bargaining Code, which pressured digital platforms to reach commercial deals with Australian publishers rather than face arbitration where a judge would set prices. The platforms struck deals but later avoided renewing them by removing news from their services.
The proposed News Bargaining Incentive would charge major platforms that do not reach commercial deals with news publishers a 2.25% tax on their Australian revenue. Platforms would receive offsets and lower overall costs if they agree to pay publishers for journalism, the government said.
The government expects the incentive to raise A$200–250 million (US$144–179 million) a year — about the level platforms paid news outlets when the bargaining code was working at its peak. The revenue would be distributed among news organisations based on how many journalists each employer has, Communications Minister Anika Wells said.
The tax targets Meta Platforms (owner of Facebook and Instagram), Google (owned by Alphabet Inc.) and TikTok (majority-owned by US-backed investors).
Meta said news organisations “voluntarily post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so.” “The idea that we take their news content is simply wrong. This proposed legislation, which would apply to platforms regardless of whether news content even appears on our services, is nothing more than a digital services tax,” Meta added, warning that a government-mandated transfer of wealth “will not deliver a sustainable or innovative news sector” and would create dependence on a government-administered subsidy.
Google said it rejects the need for the tax, arguing it already has commercial agreements with the news industry, that the proposal misunderstands how the ad market has changed, and that it arbitrarily excludes platforms like Microsoft, Snapchat and OpenAI despite shifts in how people consume news. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
All targeted platforms are American, and US critics have argued Australia’s earlier News Media Bargaining Code disproportionately affected American firms. Albanese said he was not worried about potential pushback from the United States. “We’re a sovereign nation and my government will make decisions based upon the Australian national interest,” he said.
