Australia moves to tax Meta, Google and TikTok to fund newsrooms
Australia has proposed a 2.25% tax on the Australian revenue of major digital platforms like Meta, Google, and TikTok if they do not strike commercial deals with news publishers, aiming to fund journalism and support newsrooms. The government argues the measure is necessary to ensure fair compensation for journalistic content used by these platforms to generate profits. This follows the earlier News Media Bargaining Code, which led to temporary deals that have since lapsed as platforms removed news content to avoid arbitration.
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MELBOURNE, Australia—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 Tuesday 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.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Asahi Shimbun.
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