Government increases pressure

Australia wants media levy for internet giants

According to the government, platforms have a responsibility to "help ensure Australians have access to quality journalism".

(Bild: CDPiC - stock.adobe.com)

Large internet companies in Australia are to pay a levy to media companies in future if journalistic content is distributed on their sites. The regulation is to apply to platforms with an annual turnover of more than 250 million Australian dollars (around 152 million euros) and will come into force on January 1, 2025, the government in Canberra announced.

It would affect companies such as the Facebook group Meta, Google's parent company Alphabet and the ByteDance group, which owns the social media app TikTok, as reported by Australian media.

Platforms should reach agreements with the media
"Digital platforms receive huge financial benefits from Australia. They have a social and economic responsibility to help ensure Australians have access to quality journalism," said Deputy Finance Minister Stephen Jones.

With this initiative, the government wants to encourage internet companies to enter into financial agreements with the Australian media themselves. In this way, the tech giants could avoid the levy. The government did not say how high this could be.

The background to this is that Meta announced in March that it would not be renewing contracts worth millions with several large news companies in Australia. At the beginning of 2021, the US internet giant had agreed payments for journalistic content with the Australian ABC, News Corp, the Australian Guardian and Nine Entertainment, among others.

The deals came a few weeks after the passing of a controversial media law in Australia. The law forced Google and Facebook to pay local media companies to distribute their content. Advertising revenue was to be distributed more fairly in this way.

Criticism from Meta
In a statement quoted by Australian media, Meta criticized the fact that the new regulation is intended to use one industry to subsidize another. "The proposal does not take into account the realities of how our platforms work." Most people do not visit them for their news content, Meta said. Media companies had voluntarily decided to publish content on the platforms.