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

[AP Photo]

Australia has proposed taxing digital giants Meta, Google and TikTok a proportion of their revenue to pay for news reporters.

The government released draft legislation yesterday it intends to introduce to Parliament by July 2 that would create a financial incentive for the social media companies to strike deals with news organizations to pay for journalism.

The 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 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,” 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.