‘The real objective … is not to raise revenue – we hope not to raise any revenue. The real objective is to incentivize agreement-making between platforms and news media businesses in Australia,’ Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said
Australia said on Thursday, December 12, it will impose a tax on big digital platforms and search engines unless they agree to share revenue with local news organizations. The move aims to protect public-interest journalism and the nation’s democracy.
This new tax, set to commence on January 1, would cover firms that earn more than 250 million Australian dollars, or around $160 million yearly, from Australia, including Meta Platforms, Alphabet-owned Google, and ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok.
Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the tax would be offset for the platforms paying Australian media organizations. Hence, revenue-sharing deals became the cheaper option.
“The real objective … is not to raise revenue – we hope not to raise any revenue. The real objective is to incentivize agreement-making between platforms and news media businesses in Australia,” Jones told reporters.
Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, recently refrained from renewing three-year agreements to pay Australian news publishers for their content.
In 2021, Australia introduced its News Media Bargaining Code, which requires tech giants to negotiate revenue-sharing deals with news outlets or face fines of up to 10 percent of their Australian revenue.
