Australia’s centre left government said on Thursday it has planned new rules that would charge big tech firms millions of dollars if they did not pay Australian media companies for news hosted on their platforms.
The move piles pressure on global tech giants such as Facebook owner Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google to pay publishers for content or face the risk of paying millions to continue operations in Australia.
“The news bargaining initiative will create a financial incentive for agreement-making between digital platforms and news media businesses in Australia,” Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones told a press conference.
“The platforms at risk will be significant social media platforms and search engines with an Australian-based revenue in excess of $250 million, he added.
Mr. Jones added that the charge will be offset for any commercial agreements that are voluntarily entered into between the platforms and news media businesses.
Tech companies condemned the plan.
“The proposal fails to account for the realities of how our platforms work, specifically that most people don’t come to our platforms for news content and that news publishers voluntarily choose to post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so,” a Meta spokesman added.
