CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS PUT TAX ON BIG TECH TO HELP FUND THE NEWS INDUSTRY

Senate Bill 1327, passed by the state Senate, will tax companies like Amazon, Meta, and Google for the data they collect from users to support the news industry by taxing big tech companies.

The money from this "data extraction mitigation fee" will be used to give tax credits to news organisations that employ full-time journalists and protect “democracy and free press”. This approach is similar to a movie industry tax credit, where the state does not get involved in the content. The same applies to this journalism tax credit. Republicans who opposed the bill said technology is changing many industries, not just journalism.