The Australian government has announced plans to tax large digital platforms and search engines unless they agree to share revenue with Australian news media organizations. This move aims to incentivize agreement-making between platforms and news media businesses in Australia. The tax will apply to tech companies earning over AU$250 million annually from Australia. Affected companies include Meta, Google, Alphabet, and ByteDance.
The government’s objective is not to raise revenue but to encourage platforms to share revenue with Australian news media organizations. This decision comes after Meta announced it would not renew deals to pay Australian news publishers for their content. The New Media Bargaining Code, introduced in 2021, forced tech giants to strike revenue-sharing deals or face fines of 10% of their Australian revenue.
