Meta, Google and TikTok forced to pay for news under Labor's media 'incentive'
Labor’s new policy will push tech giants to fund Australian news publishers through offsets and penalties, as an evolution of the Morrison-era media bargaining code.
The Labor government will slap some of the world's largest tech companies including Meta, Google and TikTok with a new charge if they don't strike deals with publishers under its long awaited revamp of the news media bargaining code.
But tech giants that do strike deals will be able to offset their liabilities and reduce their costs under the new scheme, dubbed the “news media bargaining incentive”.
The carrot and stick approach is the centrepiece of Labor's policy, which follows a lengthy consultation process that began after Meta walked away from its deals with news publishers in March.
The policy, unveiled by Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland on Thursday, will kick in for search and social media companies that book more than $250 million in annual local revenue, and is expected to immediately capture Alphabet-owned Google, Meta — owner of Facebook and Instagram — and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
