Australia Passes Law Forcing Tech Giants to Pay News Outlets

The Government of Australia passed the News Bargaining Incentive legislation on August 20, 2026, to compel large digital platforms to pay for local news content featured on their services. The law targets companies with a significant social media or search presence in Australia and local advertising revenue exceeding A$250 million, specifically including Meta, Alphabet's Google, TikTok, and Microsoft's LinkedIn.

Under the new framework, platforms face a 2.5% levy on their local advertising revenue if they fail to strike commercial deals with at least eight different publishers by the end of their financial reporting period. To encourage media diversity, the government provides higher offsets for spending with small and medium-sized outlets at 200%, compared to 150% for large publishers. Any single deal is capped at 25% of a platform's total levy liability.

Communications Minister Anika Wells stated the legislation supports a strong democracy and provides a voice for regional publishers. The government designed the law to close a loophole in the 2021 News Media Bargaining Code that allowed platforms to avoid payments by simply removing news content from their services. Meta previously characterized such measures as nothing more than a digital services tax.