Social media companies shouldn’t “essentially ride free” on the backs of traditional media, Anthony Albanese has said, when asked about the possibility of a levy after Meta’s decision to not renew media funding deals.
The prime minister’s comments raise expectations Labor will intervene to secure the revenue base of cash-strapped traditional media companies, which have lobbied for help due to losing funding from social media and the government’s intention to ban gambling ads online and apply caps to them on television.
Google and Meta signed deals with Australian media companies to pay for news after the Coalition government set up the news media bargaining code, which contains powers to force them into such deals or face fines of 10% of Australian revenue.
But in March Meta announced it would not renew its funding deals, prompting fears of a drawn-out fight with the Australian government, including the possibility of forcing social media companies to carry news if they dropped news to avoid designation under the bargaining code.
The Albanese government will imminently announce a decision on whether to require Meta to pay for news and is considering a levy as a way to extract revenue without the designation fight.
Asked on Thursday if social media companies would be designated or a levy would be the simplest solution, Albanese said: “Well, we’re looking at those issues.
“And we think that social media companies have a social obligation as well,” he told reporters in Sydney.
“That they shouldn’t be able to, essentially, harvest the work of news organisations that pay their journalists to do work, that should be valued.
“That is important. We continue to argue that they should do the right thing and the government is examining and working with the sector to make sure that happens.
“But journalism is important in this country. It is important we value it and important that people not, essentially, ride free on what costs others to employ news media.”
Albanese said a decision will be made “at an appropriate time”. “We have made it very clear to Meta and to others as well what our very strong view is.”
In March Meta responded to government criticism by reiterating that it opposes the news media bargaining code and that “global tech companies cannot solve the longstanding issues facing the news industry”.
Meta claims that just 3% of content shown in feeds is news-related and that news is “highly substitutable” meaning when there was less or no news on Facebook, people continued to use the site.
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The executive director of the Australia Institute, Richard Denniss, which lobbied for a levy when the Coalition proposed the news media bargaining code, said it was “an even better idea today”.
“That’s because there are more social media players you might want to capture and because with the growth of artificial intelligence, there are different players you might want to capture,” he told Guardian Australia.
The Greens have argued that TikTok, YouTube, Apple News and Instagram should also be required to pay for news, not just Facebook and Google.
On Thursday and Friday the communications department is conducting further consultation about a government proposal to ban or limit gambling ads, which has sparked calls for compensation to media companies including cuts to TV spectrum fees.
Labor proposes to ban gambling ads online, during televised sports matches and an hour either side of live sport, and to cap ads to two an hour during general TV programming.
The proposal, yet to be signed off by cabinet, falls short of the blanket ban advocated by the bipartisan parliamentary inquiry chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy and a chorus of public health experts.