Sawt Falasteen - Meta lashes Australia bid to make tech giants pay for news

Traditional media companies around the world are in a battle for survival as readers increasingly consume their news on social media.

Australia wants big tech companies to compensate local publishers for sharing articles that drive traffic on their platforms.

"Our position is clear: this law is poorly designed, grossly unfair, and will fail to deliver a diverse and sustainable news industry," said Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

"We are vehemently opposed to this legislation.

"It is discriminatory, economically incoherent, and will not deliver the sustainable news sector that Australian journalists and audiences deserve."

Social media companies including Meta, Google and TikTok will first be given a chance to strike content deals with local news publishers.

If they refused, they faced a compulsory levy that amounted to 2.25 percent of their Australian revenue.

The draft laws, unveiled earlier this year, have been designed to stop social media companies from simply stripping news from their platforms.

When Canberra mooted similar laws in 2024, Meta announced that Australian users would no longer be able to access the "news" tab.

Supporters of such laws argue that social media companies attract users with news stories and hoover up online advertising revenue that would otherwise go to struggling newsrooms.

Australia's University of Canberra has found that more than half the country uses social media as a source of news.

The draft laws will be introduced into parliament later this year.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST