Social media giants Meta, Google and TikTok’s owner ByteDance will be forced to pay Australian media companies for journalism under a revised news media bargaining code.
The Albanese government today unveiled the strengthened “news bargaining incentive” to encourage deals between the platforms and Australian publishers.
Big tech companies will be made to cough up cash in deals with publishers and will be financially penalised if they don’t negotiate “in good faith” with news organisations.
Jones said social media platforms will pay less than the fee if they strike deals with news publishers such as the ABC, News Corp, Guardian Australia and Nine, which is the publisher of this website.
He said the measure was designed “not to raise revenue” but to incentivise agreements between the likes of Meta and Google with Australian news outlets so publishers are paid instead of the federal government.
It comes after Meta announced in March it would refuse to continue to pay for news in Australia and would let its existing deals with publishers expire.
The new model will require digital platforms with Australian revenues of over $250 million to either pay the charge or facilitate deals.
This includes Meta, Google and ByteDance, the Chinese company which owns TikTok.
The new bargaining code will commence on January 1, 2025.
In a statement, Meta claimed the majority of its users do not come to its platforms for news content.
