Trump administration labels Australia’s media bargaining laws ‘foreign extortion’

The Trump administration has described Australia’s moves to make big tech companies pay for news online as “extortion” but Anthony Albanese defended the plan by saying it was about protecting and rewarding media outlets for the work they produce.

Labor’s plan to encourage Meta, Google and TikTok to make deals with Australian news publishers, or face a 2.25% levy, is likely to be supported by the Coalition and Greens in parliament. But a bigger problem may be the ire of Donald Trump, who has strongly opposed extra regulation being imposed on US-based tech companies. A major tech industry lobby group on Wednesday urged the White House to consider retaliatory trade measures.

The Australian Financial Review quoted a Trump administration spokesperson, Kush Desai, as saying the US government would examine the details.

“President Trump is committed to defending America’s leading technology sector from digital services taxes and other forms of foreign extortion,” he said. “The Trump administration will continue to address these issues with our trading partners.”

Guardian Australia has contacted the White House for comment.

The US-based Computer & Communications Industry Association – a trade group for the tech industry which represents Meta and Google as well as other major big firms including Apple, Amazon, Google, Uber and Pinterest – also criticised the Australian proposal, calling it “discriminatory”.

In a strong statement, the CCIA attacked what it called “arbitrary service definitions”.

“This would effectively function as a coercive levy tied to linking and displaying local news content – what is, in trade parlance, an illegal performance requirement,” it said.

“The Computer & Communications Industry Association strongly opposes this proposal and urges the U.S. government to publicly and forcefully challenge the draft measure, including through targeted trade remedies, if legislation passes. The Incentive is discriminatory in both design and effect, singling out predominantly U.S. firms while distorting digital markets and undermining open internet principles.”

Google and Meta also . Google rejected the need for the reform and was scathing Labor didn’t include AI platforms, while Meta – which manages Facebook and Instagram – said the government’s position was “simply wrong”.