'Tech giants must publish reliable news'

Reporters Without Borders said a provisional report by the Competition Commission 'clearly recognises journalism's value in the content circulating on online platforms'

- Nkateko Joseph Mabasa

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wants the Competition Commission to impose an unassailable obligation on Google, Meta and X to give more prominence to trustworthy news content on their platforms.

It is one of the key proposals made by RSF in a submission to the commission in response to its provisional report on the fraught dynamics of digital news distribution.

The report, published in February, moots imposing a tariff of 5% to 10% on tech companies if they fail to agree to pay media houses fairly for the news content disseminated on their sites.

But it goes beyond proposals to force platforms to compensate financially for the harm inflicted on the news industry to compel them to make structural changes in the way they operate in South Africa.

“The unequal bargaining position has resulted in an inequitable sharing of user data and insights between Google and news publishers,” it says.

Crucially, it calls for an end to algorithmic bias by YouTube Meta, and X, which demotes news content, often in favour of sensationalism, and urges Google to make search engine design choices that steer more traffic to news sites, in particular local sites prejudiced by its prioritisation of foreign media.

“These issues are exacerbated by SEO [search engine optimisation] requirements and core algorithm updates, where there is insufficient transparency on how media will be affected and how to avoid traffic loss.”