Australia forces Big Tech firms to pay for news or face a 2.25% tax
Australia has introduced draft legislation requiring tech giants like Google, Meta, and TikTok to pay for news content they share or face a 2.25% levy on their local revenues. The News Bargaining Incentive (NBI) replaces an earlier law that allowed platforms to avoid payments by removing news, a loophole exploited by Meta in 2024. The new rules apply regardless of whether platforms host news, and the tax rate decreases with more publisher deals. The government aims to generate A$200–250 million for the journalism sector and asserts its sovereignty despite potential U.S. opposition.
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Australia is getting serious about making Big Tech pay for news. The country’s government unveiled draft legislation on Tuesday that would require companies like Meta, Google, and TikTok to pay for the journalism they aggregate or reshare, or face a levy on their local revenues. Communications Minister Anika Wells said at a press conference today: “People are increasingly getting their news directly from Facebook, from TikTok, and from Google.” The proposed law, called the News Bargaining Incentive (NBI), would impose a 2.25% levy on the Australian revenues of the three platforms unless they strike commercial deals with local news publishers. Plus, the more deals they make with media outlets, the less they pay.
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