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Australia has released draft legislation that would impose a compulsory levy on Meta, Google, and TikTok if the companies do not reach voluntary content deals with local news publishers, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Tuesday.
Under the proposed framework, the three platforms would first be given the opportunity to negotiate agreements with Australian news organizations.
Failure to do so would trigger a 2.25 percent levy on their Australian revenue.
"Large digital platforms cannot avoid their obligations under the news media bargaining code," Albanese told reporters.
"What we are encouraging is for them to sit down with news organizations and get these deals done."
The draft laws are designed to close a loophole in existing media legislation that previously allowed companies to sidestep the levy by removing news content from their platforms altogether.
The three firms were identified based on a combination of their Australian revenues and the size of their domestic user base.
Albanese said journalism needed to carry monetary value and could not be used to generate profit without compensation for those who produced it.
Meta, Google and TikTok pushed back against the proposed legislation. Meta described the draft laws as "nothing more than a digital services tax," saying news organizations voluntarily post content on its platforms and receive value in return.
Google said it already maintains commercial arrangements with more than 90 local news businesses in Australia — a claim it described as unique among technology companies operating in the country.
"We reject the need for this tax," a Google spokesman said in a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The company also argued that other major platforms, including Microsoft, Snapchat, and OpenAI, had been excluded without clear justification.
The legislation comes as traditional media organizations worldwide face sustained pressure from declining advertising revenue, with digital platforms capturing an increasing share of the market.
Research from Australia's University of Canberra found that more than half of the country now uses social media as a news source.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said large digital platforms had a responsibility to support journalism that drives engagement on their services.
"We believe it's only fair that large digital platforms contribute to the hard work that enriches their feeds and that drives their revenue," Wells said.
The draft laws were released on Tuesday for public consultation, which closes in May. If passed, the legislation would be introduced into parliament later this year.
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