- Australia is proposing new legislation to compel tech giants Meta, Google, and TikTok to financially compensate news publishers for their journalistic content.
- The draft law, expected to be introduced to Parliament by 2 July, aims to establish a mechanism for these platforms to pay news organisations.
- This initiative follows a previous attempt in 2021, where platforms initially struck commercial deals but later avoided renewing them by removing news from their services.
- Under the proposed News Bargaining Incentive, platforms failing to agree on commercial deals with publishers would face a 2.25 per cent tax on their Australian revenue.
- Tech companies have criticised the plan, labelling it a 'digital services tax' that they argue misinterprets the advertising market and will not foster a sustainable news industry.
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