South Africa Tackles Big Tech Giants in Fight for Fair Revenue Sharing for News Publishers

In the face of dwindling advertising revenue, African news publishers are locked in a desperate fight for financial sustenance. Their previously reliable income sources are quickly slipping into the grasp of social media platforms and the populace they serve often shirk from bearing the financial brunt it takes to produce quality news.

In the middle of this struggle, a glimmer of hope exists as foundations and international aid organisations fill the gap, funding a significant portion of the nonprofit news across the continent. Yet, this band-aid solution fails to attack the root of the problem.

Quality information and journalism, serving as crucial pillars for democracy and social accountability, are the arteries through which a thriving society operates. It falls on the shoulders of everyone to ensure such a system not only survives but flourishes.

As such, governments across various countries are taking a closer look at big tech giants such as Google and Facebook. They are scrutinizing their roles and the extent to which they compensate news publishers for news disseminated on social media platforms.

South Africa's Competition Commission has made significant strides, opening a market inquiry into media and digital platforms. The scope of the investigation includes the adtech stack, tackling how online news-related advertising is sold. This move shadows the steps taken by Australia in 2021, where they implemented the Australian News Media Bargaining Code, successfully strong-arming Google and Facebook into annual payments worth approximately $140-million to news publishers.

Google and Meta currently possess market power, setting the terms of deals, with publishers too minuscule to negotiate adequately. The need for legislation becomes apparent as economic theory suggests a 50/50 split revenue sharing, an outcome rarely seen in the reality of these transactions. It is crucial to protect the less powerful party – the publishers.

Still, attempts to implement similar regulations worldwide are met with resistance from tech giants, as seen in Brazil, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Switzerland. It’s clear, however, that the call for transparency, inclusion of smaller publishers, and sufficient funding for news gathering and publication, cannot be ignored.