The federal government will consider implementing new laws and a tax to force social media platforms to carry Australian news content.
The Labor-led Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society released its second interim report this week, focusing on the News Media Bargaining Code and Meta’s decision this year to not renew any revenue-sharing deals with Australian media companies.
The committee found the media bargaining code has “fundamental problems”, and additional alternative actions are required to support media companies and ensure news is accessible on social media platforms.
These include a new levy on large digital platforms, which the government-led committee said the government should investigate.
Such a levy would be based on the revenue of these digital platforms, with the money raised to be distributed to local media companies, to efforts to improve media literacy and other efforts to require greater transparency from the tech giants.
The report also recommended the government investigate the potential implementation of “must carry” requirements for digital platforms when it comes to Australia news content, and “short-term” funding to help news companies transition to alternative income streams following the end of their deals with Meta.
The News Media Bargaining Code was passed into law in 2021 under the previous Coalition government.
It gives the government the power to designate tech companies and force them into arbitration to determine revenue-sharing deals for the use of news content on their platforms.
Meta and Google subsequently signed a series of deals with Australian media firms worth tens of millions of dollars, outside of the code, with the government yet to designate any companies under it.
Earlier this year Meta announced it would not be entering into any new commercial deals with Australian publishers after existing deals come to an end midway through this year.
This has now happened, equating to a loss of about $70 million annually for media firms.
‘Fundamental problem’
The committee heard mixed views on whether the government should now move to designate Meta under the Code, with large publishers pushing for this.
Smaller media companies, however, raise concerns this will lead Meta to simply remove all Australian news content from its platforms, as it has done recently in Canada.
This illustrates the “fundamental problem” with the code, the committee members said.
“The code presumes that social media platforms want to carry news, or that certain digital platforms consistently need news content to provide a service,” the interim report said.
“Without designation, the logical step is that the nexus between the support for public interest journalism and the commercial arrangements with digital platforms under the code is broken and should be replaced with alternative revenue mechanisms, such as a levy system, on the broader operations of the digital platforms.”
While moving away from it, the committee did not recommend scrapping the media bargaining code entirely.
“The code could be utilised as a vehicle to disseminate funds from a levy system to the news media publishers, with a revised registration criteria that does not present an unreasonable barrier to registration for small, independent or digital only publishers,” the committee members said.
The committee also recommended the government establish a Digital Affairs Minister to coordinate tech-related regulation.
Split views
Coalition members of the committee split from its findings and criticised the federal government for “failing to take any firm action to resolve the dispute with Meta under the News Media Bargaining Code”.
“The Albanese government has been weak in its handling of this issue,” the dissenting report said.
“It has failed to take action available to it under the powers set out in the code and has instead attempted to cite referral of this issue to this committee as some form of action.
“In reality, the government has simply used this referral to obfuscate and delay.
“The government has lacked the necessary courage to use the strong powers available to it under the code.”
Meta was criticised by the federal government following its appearance at a public hearing before the committee.
It was accused of blackmailing Parliament by refusing to rule out blocking all Australian news content on Facebook and Instagram, if it is designated under the code.
