'Free News Is Over'... Australia to Charge Google and Meta 2.5% of Ad Revenue

[Financial News] The Australian Government is tightening regulations on big tech companies' news services.
According to British media, the Australian Government said on the 3rd local time that it had raised the levy on companies that do not sign content-use agreements with news outlets from 2.25% to 2.5% under the "News Bargaining Initiative" bill.
The levy will be calculated based on advertising revenue only, not total company revenue. It will apply to Meta Platforms, Google, TikTok, and others that operate major social media or search services and generate more than A$250 million, or about 250 billion won, in local revenue.
The government also removed a previous provision that exempted specialized business networking platforms. As a result, LinkedIn has also been added to the list of covered companies.
All of the levy revenue will be used to support local media. Daniel Mulino, Australia's Assistant Treasurer, explained that raising the rate was intended to keep the overall amount at a level similar to before through contracts between platforms and news outlets. He added that if platform ad revenue rises in the future, the levy will increase as well, making it more closely tied to the companies' advertising businesses.
[email protected] Hong Chaewan Reporter