Australia mulls plan to make big tech firms pay media companies for news

SYDNEY: Australia is considering introducing rules to "create a financial incentive" for big tech firms to pay Australian media companies for news content on their platforms.

The Australian government's plans were announced by Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones on Thursday.

Described as a "news bargaining initiative", the move will put pressure on global tech giants like Facebook-owner Meta platforms and 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," Jones told a press conference.

The platforms at risk of the charge will be significant social media platforms and search engines with an Australian-based revenue in excess of $250 million, he said.

The charge will be offset for any commercial agreements that are voluntarily entered into between the platforms and news media businesses, he added.

Australia in 2021 passed laws to make the U.S. tech giants, such as Alphabet's Google and Meta, compensate media companies for the links that drive readers - and advertising revenue - to their platforms.

"We agree with the government that the current law is flawed and continue to have concerns about charging one industry to subsidise another," said a Meta spokesman after Jones' announcement.

"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," he remarked.

Meta struck deals with several Australian media firms including News Corp and national broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corp but has since said it will not renew those arrangements beyond 2024.