Industry Odisha Bureau, April 28: The Australian Government’s latest draft legislation christened “News Bargaining Incentive (NBI)” reportedly plans to levy 2.25 per cent news tax on the revenues earned by the world-renowned social media platforms Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Google and TikTok from the Australian news posted on them if they opt not to strike commercial deals with the Australian news organisations to fund for journalism.
The initiative by the Australian Government is reported to be the second attempt “to pay for the Australian news text and images that the users of the social media platforms view.”
Previously, the Australian Government had reportedly passed a similar legislation “Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code” in 2021 pressurizing the same social media platforms to strike commercial deals with the Australian media houses in a bid to fund for their journalism.
In his reactions on the ‘NBI’, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reportedly stressed, “Investment in journalism is critical to a healthy democracy,” quipping, “A monetary value needed to be attached to journalists’ work.”
Elucidating his point of view, the Australian PM told media persons, “It shouldn’t just be able to be taken by a large multinational corporation and used to generate profits for that organisation with no compensation appropriate for the people who produce that creative content.”
On the contrary, opposing the Australian Government’s proposed ‘NBI’ Meta reportedly said in a statement, “The idea that we take their news content is simply wrong. This proposed legislation, which would apply to platforms regardless of whether news content even appears on our services, is nothing more than a digital services tax,” arguing, “The Australian news organisations voluntarily post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so.”
