Australia targets tech giants with levy unless they pay local news outlets

Australia unveils draft laws requiring Meta, Google, and TikTok to pay news outlets or face a 2.25% revenue levy. | Contesto: cronaca

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• Australia targets tech giants with levy unless they pay local news outlets

Contesto

Australia escalated its battle with global tech giants on Tuesday, unveiling draft laws that would compel Meta, Google, and TikTok to compensate local news publishers for content shared on their platforms or pay a levy of 2.25 percent of their Australian revenue. The proposed legislation, announced by the government in Canberra, represents the latest effort to bolster struggling media outlets and curb the dominance of multinational digital platforms in the country’s news ecosystem. The draft laws, which are now open for public consultation, aim to build on Australia’s landmark 2021 News Media Bargaining Code, which first mandated that tech companies negotiate payments with news organizations. Under the new framework, platforms that fail to reach commercial agreements with publishers would face a fixed levy calculated on their earnings from Australian operations. The move targets three of the largest players — Meta, Google, and TikTok — though the government signaled it could expand to other platforms in the future. Australian officials framed the proposal as a necessary step to safeguard press diversity and ensure that tech giants, which derive significant revenue from news content, contribute to the sustainability of journalism. The country’s media landscape has seen sharp declines in advertising revenue and newsroom staffing over the past decade, with many outlets closing or scaling back operations. The government argues that the levy would create a financial incentive for platforms to negotiate fair deals, rather than relying on a mandatory tax. The announcement reignites tensions between Australia and Silicon Valley, particularly with Meta, which previously threatened to block news content on Facebook in response to the 2021 code. While Google has largely complied with the existing framework, Meta’s stance has been more contentious, with the company recently signaling it would phase out news content from its platforms in some markets. TikTok, a relative newcomer to the news payment debate, has not yet publicly responded to the draft laws. Industry observers note that the levy’s 2.25 percent rate, while modest relative to the companies’ multibillion-dollar...

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Categoria: cronaca