Microsoft is teaming up with European publishers to push for a system to make big tech platforms pay for news, raising the stakes in the brewing battle led by Australia to get Google and Facebook to pay for journalism. The U.S. tech giant and four big European Union news industry groups unveiled their plan Monday to work together on a solution to “mandate payments" for use of news content from online “gatekeepers with dominant market power.” They said they will “take inspiration" from proposed legislation in Australia to force tech platforms to share revenue with news companies and which includes an arbitration system to resolve disputes over a fair price for news. Facebook last week blocked Australians from accessing and sharing news on its platform, in response to the government's proposals, but the surprise move sparked a big public backlash and intensified the debate over how much power it has. Google, meanwhile, has been taking a different tack by cutting payment deals with news organizations, after backing down from its initial threat to shut off its search engine for Australians.