Australia Compels Big Tech to Pay for News: 2.25% Tax or Deals with Publishers

Colleagues, a policy update from the tech world. Australia has proposed a bill requiring Meta, Google and TikTok to pay for news or face a 2.25% tax on local revenues.

- The News Bargaining Incentive imposes a 2.25% levy, reducible to 1.5% if a sufficient number of publisher agreements are concluded.
- Goal: return A$200–250m to journalism and close the loophole that let platforms simply drop news.
- AI services are explicitly excluded; platforms owe the levy irrespective of whether they host news.

Why it matters: it alters platform–media relations with direct financial consequences for the sector.

Will this support the sustainability of local media?

#technology #media #BigTech #regulation