Tech companies gorged themselves on a free lunch of news. The buffet could be over [Video]

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has decided to take on big US tech companies in the interests of Team Australia for the second time in as many months.

But while Albanese was on safe ground placing a minimum 16-year age requirement on kids using social media – a policy welcomed by many parents fed up fighting their children on screen time – taking the fight to big tech for local publishers carries greater risks.

In 2021, former treasurer Josh Frydenberg led the negotiations with Google and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, that created the news media bargaining code.

Meta fought hard, briefly pulling news from its products in Australia. But it eventually buckled, tipping about $200 million a year into Australian journalism along with Google.

The deal was hailed as a world first.

It was the Australian government’s first attempt to force the …