Australia forces big tech companies to pay for news or face 2.25% tax

Australia is getting serious about making big tech companies pay for news. On Tuesday, the country’s government unveiled a draft law that would require companies like Meta, Google and TikTok to pay for the journalism they collect or reshare, or face a tax on their domestic revenues.

“People are increasingly getting their news directly from Facebook, from TikTok, from Google,” Communications Minister Annika Wells said at a press conference today.

The proposed law, called the News Bargaining Incentive (NBI), would impose a 2.25% tax on the three platforms’ Australian revenues unless they strike commercial deals with local news publishers. Additionally, the more deals they make with the media, the less they pay. If enough agreements are concluded, this effective rate will drop to 1.5%, potentially generating between A$200 million and A$250 million for Australian journalism.

“Journalists are the lifeblood of Australia’s media sector and play a vital role in keeping communities informed about the news that matters to them,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.

This is the country’s second attempt to force big tech companies to fund journalism. The Australian government introduced the News Media Bargaining Code, which officially came into effect in 2021, which requires platforms like Google and Meta to pay news publishers. But the original version had the flaw that big tech companies could simply remove news from their platforms to avoid payment. Meta did so in 2024, and the move reportedly led to widespread job cuts across Australian newsrooms.

Meta’s decision to withdraw news content in 2024 has left a very visible hole in Australia’s media rules. The Nile Basin Initiative is the government’s attempt to fix the issue, and this time, there is no alternative solution. Platforms are taxed whether they carry news or not. The Albanian government first announced the Nile Basin Initiative in December 2024 as an alternative to the current 2021 law, and the draft legislation was finally introduced today.

The inclusion of TikTok represents a significant expansion of the blog. The draft law explicitly excludes artificial intelligence services. Assistant Treasurer Daniel Molyneux said at today’s press conference that AI “is not within the scope of this action” because “AI is currently under scrutiny through a range of other policy forums, including, for example, the copyright work led by the Attorney General.”

The Trump administration has consistently opposed imposing digital services taxes on American technology companies, and has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs against countries that move forward with such tariffs. More recently, Trump warned the UK that it could face steep tariffs unless London drops a digital services tax imposed on US tech giants that derive their value from British users, including Google, Meta and Apple.

When a reporter asked about the White House’s opposition, Albanese told the news conference: “We are a sovereign nation, and my government will make decisions based on the Australian national interest. We do it right across the board.”

If passed in Australia, platforms would have until July to comply, the same date the tax begins.

Australia is not alone in this battle. Canada, Brazil and the European Union have taken on big tech companies over the news, with mixed results. Canada’s Act of 2023 prompted Meta to pull news from its platform entirely. The Brazilian bill has been stuck in a legislative impasse since 2019. The European Union has specific rules, but implementation varies widely. South Africa may offer the most visible scheme, with regulators there brokering direct deals with Google, Meta, TikTok and Microsoft, receiving nearly $40 million for local news outlets over five years.

Meta, Google and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.