Australia plans to pass a new rule that would force major tech groups to continue paying media companies to use their content on their social media platforms, government officials said on Thursday.
The news bargaining incentive puts pressure on major tech giants such as Meta and Google to renew payment partnerships with Australian media companies or face fines. The exact size of the fine is unclear.
“Digital platforms stand to benefit enormously financially from Australia, and they have a social and economic responsibility to contribute to Australians’ access to quality journalism,” Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones said in a statement.
Jones said at a press conference that social media platforms and search engines are eligible to be covered by this charge, with Australian-based revenues of 250 million Australian dollars, or about $160 million or more.
Tech companies that voluntarily enter into or renew partnerships with Australian media firms will not have to pay a fee.
In 2021, Australia passed the News Media Bargaining Code – an ultimatum under which social media platforms and search engines had to reach agreements with Australian news companies. However, tech giants can circumvent this mandate by removing links to Australian news content from their platforms.
And some major tech companies have already announced that they will not renew these deals after they expire in 2024.
Following initial government regulation, Meta struck deals with several Australian media firms, including News Corp Australia and Australian Broadcasting Corp. It is reportedly worth $70 millionBut in March, Meta said it would not renew those deals beyond 2024, arguing that tech companies are not responsible for the issues plaguing the news industry.
“We agree with the government that the current law is flawed and there remain concerns about charging one industry to subsidize another,” a Meta spokesperson told The Post.
“The proposal fails to take into account the realities of how our platforms work, particularly that most people do not come to our platforms for news content and that news publishers voluntarily choose to post content on our platforms because They get value from doing so,” the spokesperson said.
Danielle Coffey, president and CEO of the News Media Alliance, said the evidence shows exactly the opposite – that Meta derives “tremendous value” through news-driven engagement across its platforms.
“Under the law, we own our content and we create it and it’s the fruit of our labor and it’s being stolen,” Coffey said.
“It should not be up to the platform to determine [and how much] They would want to pay” – because in that case, they would not pay anything, he added.
Coffey said it will be interesting to see the size of the allegation in Australia and how it could impact similar actions like Canada’s Online News Act, which could fine tech companies $10 million per post in which such a company Contains news for which it has not been compensated.
Paul Deegan, president and CEO of News Media Canada, told The Post, “Australia should be commended for closing the loopholes that companies like Meta, which would have benefited from fact-based, fact-checked journalism content, have taken advantage to avoid payment.” statement.
He said Meta should follow Google’s “more responsible” approach to the new code.
“I commend the Australian government for taking steps to ensure that these social media companies that extract value from quality news content compensate those they benefit from,” Coffey told The Post.
Mark Zuckerberg’s company has also argued that Meta already provides substantial traffic – and upcoming revenue – to Australian media companies. Meta Australia wrote that in 2023, Facebook’s feed sent more than 2.3 billion clicks to Australian publishers at no charge, with an estimated value of 115 million Australian dollars or $73 million. A blog post in March,
Google has won Deals with over 80 Australian news companies Since 2021 the code has passed and is committed to renewing those deals first.
But the company said it was unsure about the deals after the new fees were announced on Thursday.
“The government’s implementation of the targeted tax threatens the ongoing viability of commercial deals with news publishers in Australia,” Google said in a statement. “We are reviewing today’s announcement and will only be able to say anything further after assessing the full impact.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
