Australia Moves To Tax Meta, Google and TikTok To Fund Newsrooms

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Canberra: The Australian government has introduced a ‘News Bargaining Incentive’ to ensure the sustainability of local journalism by targeting tech giants like Meta, Google, and TikTok. This draft legislation, unveiled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, seeks to address the power imbalance between global digital platforms and local newsrooms.

Under the proposed model, platforms with annual Australian revenues exceeding $250 million will face a 2.25% levy. However, companies can reduce or eliminate this tax by striking direct commercial deals with news publishers.

To encourage diversity, agreements with smaller or regional outlets offer higher tax offsets.

The government intends to distribute any collected funds to newsrooms based on their journalist headcounts.

While tech companies have criticized the move as an arbitrary digital tax, the administration argues that attaching monetary value to journalism is essential for a healthy democracy.