Australia threatens tech companies with 2.25 percent tax if they don’t pay publishers
Last time an idea like this came up, Meta packed up its toys and went home
Australia has come up with a new way to ensure social media and search companies pay to support journalism: a 2.25 percent tax on revenue that’s avoidable if companies instead do deals with local media.
The Land Down Under floated the scheme as a replacement for the 2021 News Media Bargaining Code that put a nominal value on links to news content shared on social media, and strongly suggested the likes of Google and Meta to negotiate with local publishers to agree on fee to secure permission to share links. If tech companies didn’t come to the table, they faced forced arbitration.
Related Knowledge Center: State of the business model
The traditional journalism business model has long since collapsed, and news organizations have shrunk or disappeared entirely. While a number of promising experiments are under way, the public has not shown a willingness to buy what news organizations are selling.