Social media giants to fund Australian journalism under new tax plan | ABC News

Facebook, Google and TikTok will be forced to fund Australian journalism, even if they do not host it, under a federal government plan to impose a new tax aimed at encouraging the tech platforms to establish funding agreements with news organisations.

The tax, which could also apply to Apple and Microsoft, would be applied to the platforms' Australian revenue, but can be reduced to zero if they sign agreements similar to those Google and Meta (the owner of Facebook) signed in 2021, including with the ABC.

The expiration of those agreements, and Meta's threat not to renew them, made the government reconsider how to get platforms to pay without spooking them to pull news off their platforms.

The new tax could be offset on a dollar-for-dollar basis or more by the amount platforms spend on new agreements, making those agreements a cheaper alternative to paying the tax.

On that basis, the government does not expect its tax will raise any revenue, seeing it instead as a "backstop" to bring platforms and media outlets to the table.

If any revenue is raised, that would also be distributed to outlets via a mechanism that has not yet been determined.

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