Australia to Force Tech Titans to Pay for News

A new Australian scheme would slap a tax on Google and other major tech platforms that will be earmarked to pay for news. Josh Edelson / AFP/File
A new Australian scheme would slap a tax on Google and other major tech platforms that will be earmarked to pay for news. Josh Edelson / AFP/File
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Australia to Force Tech Titans to Pay for News

A new Australian scheme would slap a tax on Google and other major tech platforms that will be earmarked to pay for news. Josh Edelson / AFP/File
A new Australian scheme would slap a tax on Google and other major tech platforms that will be earmarked to pay for news. Josh Edelson / AFP/File

Australia will force Meta and Google to pay for news shared on their platforms under a new scheme unveiled Thursday, threatening to tax them if they refuse to strike deals with local media.
Traditional media companies the world over are in a battle for survival as precious advertising dollars are hoovered up online, AFP said.
Australia wants big tech companies to compensate local publishers for sharing articles that drive traffic on their platforms.
"The rapid growth of digital platforms in recent years has disrupted Australia's media landscape, and it is threatening the viability of public interest journalism," Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told reporters.
"It is important that digital platforms play their part. They need to support access to quality journalism that informs and strengthens our democracy."
Social media platforms with Australian revenue of more than US$160 million a year will be taxed a still-to-be-decided figure earmarked to pay for news.
But they can offset the tax -- or avoid paying it entirely -- if they voluntarily enter into commercial agreements with Australian media companies.
The Australian government indicated the parent companies of Google, Facebook and TikTok would be covered by the tax, which will come into effect next year.
Officials said Elon Musk's X would likely escape because its domestic revenue was too small.
Hundreds of Australian journalists have lost their jobs in recent years as newspapers are shuttered and media companies downsize.
In 2021, Google and Meta struck a string of deals with Australian newsrooms worth a combined US$160 million.
But Meta has indicated it will not renew its deals when they expire in March, arguing that news makes up a tiny portion of its traffic.
The tax will be designed to stop the tech giants from simply stripping news from their platforms, something Meta and Google have done overseas in the past.
A Meta spokesperson on Thursday said Australia was "charging one industry to subsidize another".
Latest salvo
The spokesperson said the "proposal fails to account for the realities of how our platforms work".
Australia's University of Canberra has found that more than half the country uses social media as a source of news.
Supporters of such laws argue that tech titans attract users with news stories and devour online advertising dollars that would otherwise go to struggling newsrooms.
Google and Facebook owner Meta have pushed back against efforts in other jurisdictions to compensate news outlets.
Google started removing links to some California websites earlier this year after the state indicated it would make them pay for traffic driven by news.
Facebook and Instagram have blocked news content in Canada to avoid paying media companies.
It is the latest salvo in Australia's efforts to reign in the tech giants.
Australia last month voted for new laws that will ban under-16s from social media.
It has also mooted slapping fines on companies that fail to stamp out offensive content and the spread of disinformation.



Instagram Tries Using AI to Determine If Teens Are Pretending to Be Adults

In this photo illustration, a person looks at a smart phone with a Instagram logo displayed on the screen, on August 17, 2021, in Arlington, Virginia. (AFP)
In this photo illustration, a person looks at a smart phone with a Instagram logo displayed on the screen, on August 17, 2021, in Arlington, Virginia. (AFP)
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Instagram Tries Using AI to Determine If Teens Are Pretending to Be Adults

In this photo illustration, a person looks at a smart phone with a Instagram logo displayed on the screen, on August 17, 2021, in Arlington, Virginia. (AFP)
In this photo illustration, a person looks at a smart phone with a Instagram logo displayed on the screen, on August 17, 2021, in Arlington, Virginia. (AFP)

Instagram is beginning to test the use of artificial intelligence to determine if kids are lying about their ages on the app, parent company Meta Platforms said on Monday.

Meta has been using AI to determine people's ages for some time, the company said, but photo and video-sharing app will now “proactively” look for teen accounts it suspects belong to teenagers even if they entered an inaccurate birthdate when they signed up.

If it is determined that a user is misrepresenting their age, the account will automatically become a teen account, which has more restrictions than an adult account. Teen accounts are private by default. Private messages are restricted so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to.

“Sensitive content,” such as videos of people fighting or those promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited, Meta said. Teens will also get notifications if they are on Instagram for more than 60 minutes and a “sleep mode” will be enabled that turns off notifications and sends auto-replies to direct messages from 10 pm until 7 am.

Meta says it trains its AI to look for signals, such as the type of content the account interacts, profile information and when the account was created, to determine the owner's age.

The heightened measures arrive as social media companies face increased scrutiny over how their platform affects the mental health and well-being of younger users. A growing number of states are also trying to pass age verification laws, although they have faced court challenges.

Meta and other social media companies support putting the onus on app stores to verify ages amid criticism that they don’t do enough to make their products safe for children — or verify that no kids under 13 use them.

Instagram will also send notifications to parents “with information about how they can have conversations with their teens on the importance of providing the correct age online,” the company said.