Received from: NUJ
Congress notes that global tech giants exercise significant power over the media sector. The likes of Google, Meta and X consume advertising revenue and control access to online information through AI summaries and the algorithmic curation of news.
Congress is alarmed that such dominance has come at the expense of workers and public access to quality news. Tech companies have profited from the largescale theft of journalists’ work and supplanted trusted news sources while failing to take responsibility for the discrimination, disinformation, and AI-generated fake news published on their platforms.
Congress believes that the same companies that plundered and profited from the sector should pay their fair share in its preservation.
Congress supports the NUJ’s call for a six per cent windfall tax to be invested in the sector to protect jobs, improve conditions, and increase access to quality news. The NUJ has also called for an ongoing digital tax to sustain future funding.
Congress instructs the General Council to:
i. lobby the government, including through meetings with the Treasury, to introduce a six per cent windfall tax on tech giants
ii. continue to advocate for the digital services tax and take all opportunities to defend and strengthen it.
National Union of Journalists