Google has voiced support for the Competition Commission as the regulator pursues strategies to protect South Africa’s media industry.
The internet giant’s remarks come after the commission told TechCentral in an exclusive interview earlier this week that it is considering the creation of a monetary pool, funded by Big Tech platform providers, that pays media houses for news content based on traffic.
“Google is participating in the ongoing media and digital platforms market inquiry and continuing to work constructively with the South African news industry towards meaningful measures of support for the local news ecosystem,” a Google spokesman said in response to a query by TechCentral about the commission’s plans.
Noluthando Jokazi, case manager for the media and digital platforms inquiry, told TechCentral that following public hearings in March, the commission furnished a number of stakeholders, including Google, with a request for further information.
One of the key issues raised by media houses such as Media24 and Moneyweb in the public hearings concerned disclosures around the amount of traffic and the revenues generated by Google using local news content.
Media24 CEO Ishmet Davidson said that ahead of the Competition Commission’s hearings, his company launched a Promotion of Access to Information Act application to “compel” Google to disclose its revenue in South Africa as well as its operating costs, intergroup charges, and pre- and post-tax profits.
‘Dominance’
“They flatly refused, claiming confidentiality of competitor-sensitive information, which I believe is an argument of convenience to hide the truth of the extent of their dominance and their cash-extraction business model, which makes competing with them on an equal footing even more impossible and exacerbates what we believe is a clear-cut case of abuse of dominance,” Davidson said at the public hearings.
According to Jokazi, Google complied with the request for information sent by the commission, but the data the internet search giant provided is regional, bundling information for South Africa with data from the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
In the next round of the inquiry, which involves in-camera (private) sessions with stakeholders including Google, the commission plans to probe deeper into the numbers presented by Google to get a better view of its South African operations, Jokazi said.
Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has also been invited to participate in the in-camera sessions. Elon Musk-owned X – formerly known as Twitter – chose not to participate in the public hearings. Jokazi said X has been invited to the in-camera sessions and the commission is hopeful the privacy afforded by these sessions will encourage it to take part.
Jokazi said the idea of a pooled fund will help local media houses get remunerated for their content, and possibly protect smaller community publications from being sidelined – something the commission observed happened when similar remedial actions were implemented by regulators in Australia and Canada. The commission will investigate how to structure the fund so that it benefits all media houses equitably, she said.
“There are key takeaways from the public hearings that we would like to probe even further, especially regarding the feasibility of the remedial actions we are considering for community newspapers,” said Jokazi. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media
