Australia threatens tech companies with 2.25 percent tax if they don’t pay publishers

Australia has come up with a new way to ensure social media and search companies pay to support journalism: a 2.25 percent tax on revenue that’s avoidable if companies instead do deals with local media.

The Land Down Under floated the scheme as a replacement for the 2021 News Media Bargaining Code that put a nominal value on links to news content shared on social media, and strongly suggested the likes of Google and Meta to negotiate with local publishers to agree on fee to secure permission to share links. If tech companies didn’t come to the table, they faced forced arbitration.

During negotiations, Meta decided it would not allow its users to share links to news stories in Australia. The social media giant later relented in Australia and struck deals with some local publishers.

But when Canada introduced a similar law, Meta stopped allowing its local ...