Australia rewrites news law to make Big Tech pay more media outlets

Australia rewrites news law to make Big Tech pay more media outlets

Australia's reworked media bargaining law also sends 5% of levy funds to newswire AAP

Australia is widening the net on its new bargaining law before it's even reached parliament. A revamped version of the legislation, to be introduced on Thursday, will require large tech platforms to strike content deals with at least eight Australian media companies, up from six in the previous draft, spreading advertising revenue across a broader range of outlets.

The change followed negotiations between the government and opposition, according to the Australian government.

Australia's reworked law for tech giants

Under the law, digital platforms that fail to reach enough deals face a levy equal to 2.5% of their Australian advertising revenue, though that amount is offset by the value of agreements they do strike.

A reinstated cap now limits any single deal to 25% of a platform's total levy liability, preventing companies from satisfying most of their obligation through one large agreement.

For the first time, the bill ensures that 5% of all money generated by the scheme is allocated directly to the Australian Associated Press, the nonprofit newswire service in Australia.

The AAP provides text, photo and video content to media outlets across the nation and almost went out of business in 2020 before new management was brought in.

The initial Australian media bargaining code of 2021 compelled Google and Meta to enter into payment agreements with news publishers, which was mediated by the Australian government and had the power to enforce conditions in case negotiations failed.

This led to many commercial agreements, but the system fell apart when Meta announced that it would no longer pay for the news it published in Australia and elsewhere. The Australian government then moved to revamp the system to include other entities.

The new legislation includes social media apps such as TikTok and Microsoft’s LinkedIn, which were completely outside the scope of the initial bargaining code of 2021.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said that these amendments were made to cater to small and diverse media companies in view of the increased number of news distribution channels available to the audience now.