White House warns trading partners against digital services taxes and fines
Australia’s Minister for Communications Anika Wells released draft legislation that would create a “digital duty of care” for social media companies, authorizing fines against platforms that fail to meet baseline safety standards and requiring them to offer users a guaranteed opt-out from algorithmic content feeds and targeted advertising.
Wells framed the proposal in familiar regulatory terms. “Just as we have basic safety standards for cars, toys or food, the duty of care applies basic standards for the online products we use every day,” she said while releasing the draft legislation.
The proposed framework would also compel platforms to allow users to opt out of the algorithms that funnel content to subscribers and expose them to carefully targeted advertising. The Australian government has described the change as “empowering” for users.
The White House has signaled its objections. White House spokesperson Kush Desai said on Wednesday that Trump had warned trading partners against digital services taxes and other measures the administration considers harmful to US tech firms. “President Trump has unequivocally warned trading partners against imposing digital services taxes, fines, and other forms of extortion on America’s leading technology sector,” Desai said.
So far, reactions from Washington have come at the officer level, with President Trump not yet having posted his thoughts on social media. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Donald Trump are both expected to attend the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.
Australian opposition figures have criticized the bill. Sarah Henderson, the opposition’s communications spokesperson, warned that the relevant minister would be armed “with unfettered powers to make any regulation into what she would describe as serious harm in the case of adults or harm concerning children.”
“Now, this means almost anything,” Henderson told the conservative-aligned News24 broadcaster. “The government could shut down any content or material that they deem to be harmful. This is a very egregious breach of our freedom of expression, and we must fight this extremely hard.”
Pauline Hanson, who leads the One Nation party, characterized the proposed curbs in similarly strong language. “Labor is copying the Chinese Communist Party’s censorship playbook,” Hanson wrote on Facebook.
The new bill builds on Australia’s social media ban for under-16s, which was legislated in November 2024. The age restriction has drawn criticism from the Trump administration and major platforms, with reporting describing the measure as only partially effective.
A separate measure, the News Bargaining Incentive, already requires social media companies to strike deals with Australian media outlets or pay a 2.5% tax on their Australian advertising revenues. Australian changes to the calculation of those tax liabilities have also drawn objections from the Trump administration, which has characterized such mechanisms as functioning like tariffs.
Some elements of the proposed framework are novel, while others have been adapted from European regulatory approaches, according to reporting on the proposal.