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Australia to levy Big Tech companies 2% unless they pay for local news

Australia to levy Big Tech companies 2% unless they pay for local news

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Australia has introduced draft laws that would impose a 2.25 % levy on the local revenue of tech giants Meta, Google and TikTok unless they reach payment agreements with local news outlets. The measure aims to close a loophole in previous media legislation and to support Australian journalism as readership increasingly shifts to social media platforms.

Anika Wells
Australian Labor Party
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.
2. Platforms should do deals with news ⁠organisations. If they decide not to, they will end up paying more.
3. 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.
Anthony Albanese
Australian Labor Party
1. 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.
2. We think that investment in journalism is critical to a healthy democracy.
3. What we are encouraging is for them to sit down with news organisations and get these deals done.
4. At this point, the three organisations are Meta, Google and TikTok.
5. Large digital platforms cannot avoid their obligations under the news media bargaining code.
6. We're a sovereign nation. And my government will make decisions based upon ‌the Australian national interest.
Daniel Mulino
Australian Labor Party
1. Large digital platforms have an important role to play in providing access to news for all Australians and being partners in innovation, we would like to see them work with the news media on commercial deals with benefit to both parties.
Meta
1. A government-mandated transfer of wealth from one industry to another, with no connection to the value exchanged, will not deliver a sustainable or innovative news sector. Instead, it will create a news industry dependent on a government-administered subsidy scheme.
2. 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.
Google
1. It ignores the fact that Google already has commercial agreements with the news industry, misunderstands how the ad market changed and mandates payments from some companies while arbitrarily excluding platforms like Microsoft, Snapchat and OpenAI -- despite the major shift in how people consume news.

Australia to levy Big Tech companies 2% unless they pay for local news

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