Meta will throw the toys out of the cot, again

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","dateModified":"2026-04-28T06:53:32Z","datePublished":"2026-04-28T06:53:32Z","description":"Local journalism deserves saving. But the scheme designed to save it rests on assumptions that the Facebook and Instagram owner has already demolished, without consequences.","headline":"Meta will throw the toys out of the cot, again","keywords":"Social media, News Bargaining Incentive, Just in, Facebook, Publishing, Mark Zuckerberg, Anthony Albanese, Google, Analysis","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"David Swan","jobTitle":"Technology editor","url":"/by/david-swan-p53741"}],"mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https://www.smh.com.au/technology/meta-will-throw-the-toys-out-of-the-cot-again-20260428-p5zrqy.html","@type":"WebPage"},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","height":"1322.6666666666665","url":"https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.5568901851851852%2C$multiply_0.7025%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1059%2C$x_0%2C$y_2/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/c1950ca10c675af4c94e465c5c0851d383f2c2e2","width":"744"},"isAccessibleForFree":false,"hasPart":[{"@type":"WebPageElement","isAccessibleForFree":false,"cssSelector":".paywall"}],"publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","name":"The Sydney Morning Herald","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","height":"628","url":"https://www.smh.com.au/metro-assets/assets/static/smh.png","width":"1200"},"url":"https://www.smh.com.au"},"isPartOf":{"@type":["CreativeWork","Product"],"name":"The Sydney Morning Herald","productID":"smh.com.au:webonly"}}{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","item":{"@id":"https://www.smh.com.au","name":"Home"},"position":1},{"@type":"ListItem","item":{"@id":"https://www.smh.com.au/technology","name":"Technology"},"position":2},{"@type":"ListItem","item":{"@id":"https://www.smh.com.au/topic/social-media-621","name":"Social media"},"position":3}]}AdvertisementAnalysisTechnologySocial mediaMeta will throw the toys out of the cot, againDavid SwanApril 28, 2026 — 4:53pmSaveYou have reached your maximum number of saved items.Remove items from your saved list to add more.ShareAAAMeta has been blocking news in Canada for 2½ years, and the sky hasn’t fallen on Mark Zuckerberg.That’s the fact Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his parliamentary colleagues should be staring at this week as they release their draft legislation for the News Bargaining Incentive, not the optimistic precedent of 2021, when Google and Facebook scrambled to sign cheques rather than face designation under the original code.The world has changed in the past five years: Meta has called the bluff once already, and won.Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t budged in Canada. Will he do so here?BloombergI’ll admit I underestimated this when the Albanese government first floated this incentive scheme back in December 2024. The government said then that it would introduce a tax worth 2.25 per cent of tech firms’ revenue if they did not strike voluntary agreements with media companies to compensate them for news used on their platforms. For Meta, that would mean a levy in the region of $27 million to $34 million.AdvertisementMy assumption – and it was a common one among newsroom colleagues and executives at other tech companies at the time – was that Meta’s Canadian news ban was a temporary protest, the kind of corporate toddler tantrum that would eventually give way to commercial pragmatism.Wanting something to work is not the same…

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