Australia’s government said Tuesday that Meta, Google, and TikTok could face multimillion-dollar penalties if they fail to strike payment deals with local media outlets for news carried on their platforms.
Incentive Structure
Under a proposed News Bargaining Incentive, the three tech giants would be taxed 2.25% of their local revenues unless they reach such agreements, with the funds redirected to support and strengthen Australian journalism.
“People are increasingly getting their news directly from Facebook, from TikTok and from Google, and we believe it’s only fair that large digital platforms contribute to the hard work of journalism that enriches their feeds and that drives their revenue,” Communications Minister Anika Wells told a news conference.
“Platforms should do deals with news organisations. If they decide not to, they will end up paying more,” she said.
Political Pushback
U.S. President Donald Trump opposes digital services taxes on U.S. tech giants and has threatened tariffs on countries that pursue them.
“We’re a sovereign nation. And my government will make decisions based upon the Australian national interest,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the same news conference.
Under the draft legislation, the levy would start from the 2025-26 financial year, which starts on July 1.
“The News Media Bargaining Incentive means that if a platform doesn’t do a deal with a news publisher, the money will come to us and we will deliver that funding to news organisations based on how many journalists they employ,” Wells said.
The platforms would get bigger offsets for deals struck with smaller organisations.
The News Bargaining Incentive is intended to replace 2021 laws that mandated tech firms pay for news content because those rules were “no longer working effectively,” the government said.
After the move Meta briefly blocked users from reposting news articles, but later struck deals with several Australian media firms that expired in 2024.
A spokesperson for TikTok declined to comment, while Meta and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(With inputs from Reuters)
