Australia Unveils New “Financial Incentive” to Force Big Tech to Pay for News

Australia is introducing new rules designed to pressure tech giants like Meta and Google into paying Australian news publishers for content, Reuters reports.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones announced the “news bargaining initiative” on Thursday, which will impose a financial charge on large platforms unless they voluntarily negotiate payment deals with media companies.

The initiative targets significant social media platforms and search engines with Australian revenue exceeding AU$250 million (approximately $160 million). Jones explained that the charge will act as a “financial incentive” for agreement-making, effectively forcing negotiations and payments for news content. Any commercial agreements voluntarily reached between platforms and news businesses will offset the charge.

This move builds upon Australia’s 2021 legislation, which mandated compensation for media companies from tech giants for traffic driven to their platforms. However, the government now considers that law flawed.

Meta, which struck deals with several Australian media firms in 2021, including News Corp and the ABC, but has since indicated it won’t renew them, criticized the new proposal.

“The proposal fails to account for the realities of how our platforms work…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 spokesperson said.

Meta also voiced concerns about using one industry to subsidize another.