An Australian parliamentary committee has recommended in its report that Australia impose a tax on social media platforms like Google and Meta to support journalists.
Google and Meta partnered with many Australian news media businesses in 2021 under the News Media Bargaining Code, a law that would compensate journalists for their work’s social media distribution. Meta declined to renew its deal earlier this year.
The report, released last week, also recommends “that the Australian Government establish a short-term transition fund to help news media businesses to diversify and strengthen alternative income streams and news product offerings”, according to the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society.
“The federal government should move quickly to adopt the recommendation of a Parliamentary inquiry into social media by requiring digital platforms to pay a levy to fund public interest journalism,” said the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Australia’s media trade union.
“These digital giants are making huge amounts of money from the work of journalists and media organisations. Their businesses are not sustainable without our work,” Federal MEAA Media President Karen Percy said.
Major news companies Nine Entertainment and Seven West Media have not endorsed the report’s proposals, instead calling for the government to designate Meta under the existing law.
Meta has criticised the report, with a spokesperson saying: “The committee’s recommendations ignore the realities of how our platforms work, the preferences of the people who use them, and the value we provide news publishers who choose to post their content on our platforms.”
Meta and Google collectively account for 70% of digital advertising, according to a report by the Global Media and Internet Research Project earlier this month.
The Global Media and Internet Research Project also recommended taxing social media platforms to compensate journalists.