a proposed levy<\/a> on large digital platforms could expose the country to the kind of trade action previously pursued by the United States against foreign digital taxes.<\/p>\nIn a blog post published on 4 June accompanying its formal submission on the Australian government\u2019s proposed News Bargaining Incentive (NBI), the Facebook and Instagram owner described the scheme as \u201cpoorly designed, grossly unfair\u201d and said it would fail to create \u201ca diverse and sustainable news industry\u201d.<\/p>\n
The dispute centres on the Australian government\u2019s latest attempt to secure funding for journalism from major technology companies. Under the proposed regime, designated digital platforms would face a charge equivalent to 2.25% of their Australian revenue unless they entered into qualifying commercial arrangements with Australian news publishers. The proposal follows Australia\u2019s pioneering News Media Bargaining Code, introduced in 2021, which sought to address concerns that technology platforms were benefiting from news content without adequately compensating publishers. Since then, however, Meta has moved away from news products, ending commercial agreements with publishers and shutting down Facebook News in Australia in April 2024.<\/p>\n
Meta\u2019s latest intervention escalates the dispute beyond media policy and into the realm of international trade law. The company argues that the NBI is \u201ca discriminatory tax, applied only to a handful of foreign companies\u201d and said it was broader than digital services taxes adopted elsewhere because it would be calculated using \u201cthe widest possible revenue base and with no credible connection to news\u201d.<\/p>\n
The company contends that the proposed charge would capture revenue from products and services that have no relationship to journalism. \u201cNot only does this revenue base lack direct connection to news publishing, it also captures innovations that Meta is bringing to the Australian market; products that have no relation whatsoever to news content,\u201d the submission states.<\/p>\n
Meta is also challenging the fundamental premise underpinning the legislation. According to the company, publishers voluntarily post content to its platforms because they derive commercial value from doing so through referral traffic, audience growth and advertising revenue. Citing a 2023 study by NERA Economic Consulting, Meta said the research found that publishers receive \u201cconsiderable economic benefits\u201d from their presence on Facebook.<\/p>\n
The company further maintains that consumer behaviour has moved away from news content. Before Facebook News was discontinued in Australia, daily active users of the product had fallen by more than 80%, Meta said. \u201cPeople come to our platforms for connection, entertainment, and creator content, not to click on news articles.\u201d It cited its experience in Canada, where Meta removed news content from Facebook following the enactment of the Online News Act. According to the company, user numbers and engagement continued to grow after news was withdrawn.<\/p>\n
Meta reserved some of its strongest criticism for what it sees as the policy consequences of the proposal, contending that, rather than encouraging publishers to adapt to changing consumer habits, the proposal would leave parts of the news industry reliant on payments generated through government intervention. In the company\u2019s view, the NBI would entrench dependency by guaranteeing revenue to publishers \u201cregardless of whether they build sustainable business models\u201d. \u201cA sustainable news ecosystem requires publishers to innovate and adapt to changing consumer behaviour,\u201d the company wrote. \u201cThe NBI does the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one particularly pointed passage, Meta dismissed the title of the legislation itself. \u201cThe very name \u2018NBI\u2019 is a misnomer,\u201d it said. \u201cThere is no commercial \u2018incentive\u2019, only a government-imposed charge with no rational connection to the value platforms provide.\u201d<\/p>\n
The submission also contains a veiled warning about the potential international ramifications of the proposal. Meta noted that the levy would be broader than certain digital services taxes adopted by other countries, measures that in some instances prompted trade investigations and retaliatory threats from the United States. Although Meta cannot itself bring a claim under the Australia\u2013US Free Trade Agreement, its invocation of treaty obligations and previous US trade responses suggests the company is seeking to portray the dispute as a matter of international trade policy rather than merely domestic media regulation.<\/p>\n
The Australian government has argued that intervention is necessary to support public-interest journalism and address the changing economics of news production in the digital age. Whether the legislation survives consultation in its current form remains to be seen. For now, however, Meta\u2019s submission represents a significant escalation in a debate that has already made Australia one of the world\u2019s most closely watched testing grounds for regulating the relationship between technology platforms and the news industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Instagram and Facebook parent frames levy as \u2018grossly unfair\u2019 while issuing a dark warning that the move could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,2456,1202,347123,44],"class_list":["post-715016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-facebook","tag-instagram","tag-new-media-bargaining-code","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}