‘Should pay for journalism’: Albo pushes for hefty tax on Meta, Google under proposed news media bargaining code

Anthony Albanese has said social media platforms “should pay for journalism” while discussing his government’s plan to tax tech giants if they do not make licensing deals with media outlets.

Australia’s news industry has long called for digital behemoths, such as Google and Meta, to compensate it for the activity they get from reporting.

The Prime Minister on Friday said it was “really important that we support journalism now.”

“These social media platforms that … essentially don’t have journalists working for them, but produce and earn revenue off that work of journalists, be it across the board, whether it’s the ABC or News (Corp) or The Guardian or The Age, they reprint it, send it out in digital form, and they should pay for journalism,” Mr Albanese said.

“It’s as simple as that.”

The Albanese government announced its “news bargaining incentive” on Thursday, after Meta earlier this year said it would stop paying Australian media organisations for content on its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

Under the plan, digital platforms generating more than $250m would need to pay a levy.

The tax can be effectively refunded if they strike deal directly with media companies.

Outlets have been haemorrhaging revenue for years in the wake of social media’s meteoric rise – resulting in lucrative advertising contracts being lost and traditional business models in the industry being gutted.

The news media bargaining code introduced by the Morrison government in 2021 resulted in Meta and Google paying up to $200m to Australian outlets.

Meta has responded to the Albanese government’s latest digital crack down by claiming most users did not use its platforms for news.

However, research within Australia and internationally has consistently shown that the majority of people get their news from social media.

Meanwhile, Google has pledged to renew its deals with Australian media.