Taxation of Digital Content: the Case of Facebook in Australia
Taxation of Digital Content: the Case of Facebook in Australia

Author(s): Oskar Szydłowski
Subject(s): Politics, Media studies, Economic policy, Fiscal Politics / Budgeting, ICT Information and Communications Technologies
Published by: PISM Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych
Keywords: Australia; facebook; digital content; tax;
Summary/Abstract: Under the influence of a strong lobby of traditional media - television and press - the Australian government attempted to adopt what it called a “link tax”, which is a fee on external content available through digital platforms. Although Facebook responded with a kind of extortion - blocking links to certain sites for users in Australia - the law on the tax was passed on 24 February, albeit in a softer version. The law resulted from a split in the negotiating front of the main platforms, Google and Facebook, numerous lawsuits and scandals involving them, as well as the public’s increasingly unfavourable sentiment towards the tech giants. The Australian example may serve as a catalyst for regulations around the world on the activities of large technology companies (i.e., Big Tech), not only in the area of media.

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