4 ms·
From an American perspective, sure, but in a lot of countries we ask ourselves if letting these companies operate freely is a benefit for our society. I can se
by moksly 6y ago
From an American perspective, sure, but in a lot of countries we ask ourselves if letting these companies operate freely is a benefit for our society.
I can see why moving money from Facebook to local news media would benefit Australia, and let’s not pretend we can’t force Google or Facebook to comply. Just look at what they are willing to do for China.
- toast0 6y agoEven if I try to imagine an Australian perspective, demanding Google and Facebook pay the newspapers 10% of revenue seems pretty bizarre. It would seem better to just charge a 10% tax on advertising, put that in the general fund, and then subsidise newspapers however you see fit, which may or may not amount to the same AUD but can more easily change over time.
- rutthenut 6y agoYes, would think surely this ought to be managed by a tax that keeps some of the money in-country, whether or not it gets shared with the press (which brings a lot of issues about subsidies, free speech and more). Wondering, do FB/Google pay any substantial corporate tax bills in Australia?
- creato 6y ago> Just look at what they are willing to do for China. ... What are they willing to do? Aren't they both banned in China?
- Arnt 6y agoForcing compliance is simple: Just change the tax laws. So what would the law say? A tax 10% of advertising revenue on... what kind of advertising? All advertising? That sounds really simple, just increase the VAT by 10% for advertising products.
- Arnt 6y agoReplying to myself because this reminds me of something in another country, decades ago. This other country had a tax rule that was intended to help news media, and one of the ministries had to decide what "news media" meant, in effect set terms for who benefited. This went well for a decade or more. Then, someone in that ministry wrote a memo that said (abbreviated and modernised): "Last week, <name> published a% clickbait, b% celebrity blahblah and other rubbish, and only c% factual news. We need to consider whether it is a news medium as required for the tax rule." I have a feeling that the Austrialian companies that want a part of Googles/Facebook's income do not want any sort of just or equal tax rule, and also do absolutely not want to be restricted to publishing mostly news.