Australia's centre-left government said on Thursday it planned new rules that would charge big tech firms millions of dollars if they did not pay Australian media companies for news hosted on their platforms.

The Australian government said Thursday it will tax large digital platforms and search engines unless they agree to share revenue with Australian news media organizations. The tax would apply from Jan.

Australia's centre-left government on Thursday will unveil new rules that could impose fines on Big Tech companies if they refuse to continue to pay Australian media firms for news content hosted on their platforms,

Australia's government says it will create new rules to force big tech companies to pay local publishers for news. The long-awaited decision sets out a successor to a world-first law that Australia passed in 2021, which was designed to make giants like Meta and Google pay for hosting news on their platforms.

The Australian government has announced a news bargaining incentive, meaning social media giants must strike new deals and pay media companies for news content in a bid to maintain public interest journalism.

Meta will be forced to continue paying publishers for journalism under the News Media Bargaining Code in an extraordinary intervention by the Albanese government.