The bill would levy a new tax on ad sales based on the revenue a company generates, ranging from 2.5 percent to 10 percent. A company that generates US$100 million to $1 billion a year in global revenue will be taxed 2.5 percent on its ads. Companies that make more than $15 billion a year will pay a 10 percent tax.

MDAGRT was passed for at least two reasons. First, like other states, Maryland’s yawning budget deficit as a result of the pandemic has forced it to seek new sources of revenue to finance education, health and basic infrastructure to help the vaccination effort. It is no secret that states have an interest in getting a bigger chunk of tech giants’ prosperity.

Second, according to The New York Times, Maryland legislators said they were inspired by an op-ed from the economist and 2018 Nobel laureate, Paul Romer, proposing taxing targeted ads to urge tech companies to change their business models. Tech giants are said to collect personal data, monetize it and earn billions of dollars on it, but they pay nothing for its use.

North Dakota, too, has an agenda for tech giants, especially Google and Apple, although it does not involve a new tax. States dominated by Republicans, including North Dakota, are generally pro-business and pro-deregulation. The state is instead concerned about the high fee – up to 30 percent – imposed by Google and Apple on app developers on their app sales. Proponents of this bill claim these practices hurt small businesses and that such a law could attract certain tech companies to their state.

In Australia, a new battlefield has formed around tech giants and media corporations after Australian legislators proposed a bill to allow news publishers, both individually and collectively, to negotiate compensation for every news piece shared or distributed on their platforms. It is no secret that tech giants such as Facebook and Google receive billions of dollars in revenue from digital ads related to news content that does not belong to them, angering the media companies that own it. According to a report cited by CNA, every A$100 spent on digital advertising, Google takes A$53 and Facebook makes A$28.

Google and Facebook are pushing back against the bill and are threatening to prevent Australian people and their media companies from sharing links of news content on their social networks. They say news publishers gain from increased user traffic as a result of the sharing. But in recent weeks, Google and Facebook have seemed to diverge on how they are facing the regulatory future. Google struck a deal with media companies such as Reuters, The Financial Times and News Corp and has agreed to pay for news content. Facebook, on the other hand, remains harsh and has now begun to remove news from its platform in Australia.

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