STORY: Big tech firms face paying millions of dollars in fines under new government rules in Australia.

That’s if they don’t pay the country’s media companies for news hosted on their platforms.

It puts pressures on global tech giants like Facebook-owner Meta and Alphabet’s Google to pay publishers for content.

Stephen Jones is Minister for Financial Services.

“The News Bargaining Initiative will be a new addition to that code which will create a financial incentive for agreement making between digital platforms and news media businesses in Australia.

He added the platforms at risk will be significant social media sites and search engines with an Australian-based revenue over $250 million.

Tech companies condemned the plan.

Meta said the proposal fails to account for the realities of how their platforms work.

They argued most people don’t visit their pages for news content.

And that news publishers voluntarily choose to post content on their platforms because they receive value from doing so.

A spokesperson for Google warned the decision “risks the ongoing viability of commercial deals with news publishers in Australia”.

The proposed new rules come as Australia toughens its approach to the mostly US-based tech giants.

Last month it became the first country to ban children under 16 from social media.

Canberra also plans to threaten the companies with fines for failing to crack down on scams.