Australia to charge tech companies for news content if they do not pay

Australia's centre-left government said on Thursday it planned new rules that would charge big tech firms millions of dollars if they did not pay Australian media companies for news hosted on their platforms.

The move piles pressure on global tech giants such as Facebook-owner Meta Platforms and Alphabet's Google to pay publishers for content or face the risk of paying millions to continue operations in Australia.

"The news bargaining initiative will ... will create a financial incentive for agreement-making between digital platforms and news media businesses in Australia," Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones told a press conference.

The platforms at risk 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, Jones added.

Tech companies condemned the plan.

"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," a Meta spokesman said after Jones' remarks.

The proposed new rules come as Australia toughens its approach to the mostly US-domiciled tech giants, after becoming last month the first country to ban children under the age of 16 from social media.

That move is seen as setting a benchmark for other governments' handling of Big Tech.

Canberra also plans to threaten the companies with fines for failing to stamp out scams.

Google, ByteDance through TikTok, and Meta through its various platforms would fall within the scope of the charges under the new rules. However X, formerly Twitter, would not be covered, Jones said.

In 2021, Australia passed laws to make the US tech giants, such as Google and Meta, compensate media companies for the links that lure readers and advertising revenue.

After the move Meta briefly blocked users from reposting news articles, but later struck deals with several Australian media firms, such as News Corp and national broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corp.

It has said since it will not renew those arrangements beyond 2024.

Meta, which also owns Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, has been scaling back its promotion of news and political content globally to drive traffic and says news links are now a fraction of users' feeds.

This year it said it would discontinue the news tab on Facebook in Australia and the United States, adding that it had cancelled the tab last year in Britain, France and Germany.

In 2023, Meta blocked users in Canada from reposting news content after its government took similar action.

Australia news organisations, including Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, are expected to benefit from the new rules.

Following Jones' announcement, News Corp Australia Executive Chairman Michael Miller said he would contact Meta and TikTok immediately to seek a commercial relationship with News Corp Australia.

"I believe news publishers and the tech platforms should have relationships that benefit both parties on commercial and broader terms," he said in a statement.