Meta Slams Australia’s ‘Grossly Unfair’ News Payment Plan

Australia’s push to compel technology giants to fund local journalism has met with strident resistance from Meta, which on Thursday denounced the government’s draft legislation as “grossly unfair” and a “discriminatory tax”. The News Bargaining Incentive, unveiled by the Labor government in late April, would require large digital platforms to pay a levy of up to 2.25 per cent of their Australian revenue, unless they reach commercial agreements with news organisations. In a formal blog post, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram argued the measure was poorly designed and would fail to sustain a diverse media landscape, marking an escalation in a long-running dispute between Canberra and Silicon Valley.

The standoff is the latest chapter in Australia’s globally influential experiment with forcing platforms to pay for news. A world-first bargaining code introduced by a previous conservative government in 2021 pushed Google and Facebook to enter deals worth an estimated A$200 million annually. The new proposal extends the model to a broader swath of digital firms, including TikTok, and replaces voluntary negotiation with the threat of a blunt fiscal penalty. Viewed from Canberra, the incentive is essential to arresting the collapse of local newsrooms, which have shed hundreds of editorial positions in the past decade as advertising revenue migrated online.

From Meta’s Menlo Park headquarters, however, the plan is seen as an illegitimate revenue grab that undermines the principle of free linking on the internet. The company has previously shown it is willing to suspend news content in markets where it faces similar obligations, as it did in Canada in 2023 following the passage of that country’s Online News Act. The Australian draft is being watched with keen interest in Europe, where officials in Paris and Brussels have crafted their own versions of news payment regimes under copyright law. French daily Le Figaro reported the development prominently, reflecting the continent’s preoccupation with the concentration of digital power.

The legislation is expected to be introduced into parliament later this year, and its fate remains uncertain. Meta’s combative stance signals that talks with publishers are unlikely to resume amicably; the company has already allowed pre-existing deals to lapse. The opposition centre-right Liberal Party has signalled unease with the tax, though the government holds a majority. As the battle lines harden, the outcome could have far-reaching consequences for how democratic societies fund public-interest journalism in an era of algorithmic gatekeepers.