Canberra [Australia], December 12 : The Australian government announced plans to tax big tcoech firms if they fail to share revenue with local news media organisations, Al Jazeera reported.
The measure will be applicable from January 1. Tech Giants like Meta and Google with an Australian-based revenue in excess of 250 million Australian dollars (USD 160m) to pay for content or face a hefty tax bill that could amount to millions, as per Al Jazeera.
Australian Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said on Thursday that the rapid growth of digital platforms had "disrupted" the media landscape and was "threatening the viability of public interest journalism," Al Jazeera quoted her as saying.
"[Digital platforms] need to support access to quality journalism that informs and strengthens our democracy," she said.
"The real objective ... is not to raise revenue - we hope not to raise any revenue. The real objective is to incentivise agreement-making between platforms and news media businesses in Australia," Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.
The new rules will support traditional media companies battling for survival as their content is made freely available on platforms, wiping out precious advertising dollars. Amid the ongoing crisis, hundreds of Australian journalists have lost their jobs, Al Jazeera reported.
"The News Bargaining Initiative will ... will create a financial incentive for agreement-making between digital platforms and news media businesses in Australia," Jones said, as per CNN.
"We agree with the government that the current law is flawed and continue to have concerns about charging one industry to subsidise another," a Meta spokesperson told CNN after Jones' announcement.
Meta said it made deals with several Australian firms, but added that it would not renew them beyond 2024.
"The proposal fails to account for the realities of how our platforms work, specifically that most people don't come to our platforms for news content and that news publishers voluntarily choose to post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so," the spokesperson added, as per CNN.
Last month, Australia voted for new laws banning social media access for children below 16, as per Al Jazeera.
Australian government is also mulling fines for companies that fail to stamp out offensive content and tackle disinformation, Al Jazeera reported.
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