US President Donald Trump’s advisors have been briefed and greenlighted Labor’s teethy return growl at big tech - Meta particularly - in the ongoing cat and mouse game of sustainable funding of local news content and journalism. But more platforms look set to be captured by the proposed new laws – LinkedIn the most likely - which are set for retrospective enactment in three weeks – January 1, once they’re passed.

But there’s a catch. Pending election timing and the Coalition’s position, it may require a Labor win before the louder bark turns to a real regulatory bite. And there are already fast-forming views that the beefed-up policy to restrain the posse of global tech platforms won’t get through before the next election cycle.

Happy Jan, not happy Jan

The Albanese government won early, broad support from the Australian publishing industry yesterday after announcing an overhaul of the globally recognised Morrison government era News Media Bargaining Code laws, designed to force platforms to contribute to the sustainability of journalism “and democracy”.

Underpinning both the Coalition and Labor taking on Big Tech is a decade of professional content media being outmuscled by the platform coders with lower cost user generated content and more pervasive tracking online of people, spinning off richer personal data for targeting that advertisers like. The social platforms, like sugar, alcohol, gambling and tobacco, are also massively popular with the people.

But some, like Future Media’s Ricky Sutton, argue Canada has quickly displaced Australia’s global reputation as a market leader in its resolve and novel policy initiatives to contain the power of a few global tech players. A report from global media buying firm Magna this week said Google and Meta between them now control 60 per cent of the worlds digital advertising supply outside of China. Sutton is also one who thinks the new policy will need Labor to be re-elected before it becomes law. “This isn’t a bank on it moment,” he said.

Read the rest of Mi3's reporting here.