Google pledges support for South African news media in proposed Big Tech Fund

Google has voiced its support for the Competition Commission in pursuing a strategy to protect South Africa's media industry.

The internet giant's comments come after the committee told Tech Central in an exclusive interview earlier this week that it was considering creating a funding pool funded by major tech platform providers that would pay media companies for news content based on traffic.

Google is participating in the ongoing Media and Digital Platforms Market Review and continues to work constructively with South Africa's news industry to explore meaningful ways to support the local news ecosystem, a Google spokesperson said in response to TechCentral's questions about the commission's plans.

The Committee submitted requests for information to a number of stakeholders, including Google.

Norsando Jokaj, case manager for the Media and Digital Platforms Investigations, told TechCentral that after the March hearing, the committee submitted requests for further information to a number of stakeholders, including Google.

One of the key issues raised by media companies such as Media24 and Moneyweb during the hearing concerned Google's disclosure of the amount of traffic and revenue it generates using local news content.

Media24 CEO Ishmet Davidson said ahead of the Competition Commission hearing that the company had launched an Access to Information Act application to force Google to disclose its South African revenue, operating costs, inter-group expenses and profits before and after tax.

“Superiority”

“They flatly refused, on the grounds that it would provide confidential information to their competitors, but I believe this is just a convenient excuse to hide the truth about their monopoly position and cash-sucking business model, making it even more impossible for us to compete on an equal footing with them and exacerbating what we believe to be a clear abuse of their monopoly position,” Davidson said at the hearing.

Jocaj said Google had responded to the information requests sent by the committee, but the data the internet search giant provided was regional, combining information for South Africa with data for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

Jokazi said the next stage of the investigation would involve closed-door sessions with stakeholders, including Google, and the committee would look more closely at the figures provided by Google to get a better understanding of the company's operations in South Africa.

Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has also been invited to participate in closed sessions. Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, has declined to participate in the hearing. Jocaj said X has been invited to participate in closed sessions and that the committee hopes the privacy afforded in these sessions will encourage it to participate.

Norsando Jokaji of the Competition Commission

Jocaj said the pooled fund idea could help local media get compensated for their content and prevent smaller regional publications from being marginalized, as the commission observed when regulators in Australia and Canada implemented similar corrective measures. The commission will look into how the fund can be structured to benefit all media equitably, she said.

“There were key takeaways from the hearing that we would like to explore further, particularly with regard to the feasibility of the corrective measures we are considering against the community newspaper,” Jocaj said.

South Africa considering fund for media houses – to be funded by big tech companies

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://techcentral.co.za/google-sa-news-media-big-tech-fund/246609/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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