It is known that the competition monitoring agency in South Africa said that Google's search algorithm is uncompetitive, prioritizing international news agencies and reducing the presence of local media in search results, as well as outstanding news items.
According to the report, Google may have to spend 300 - 500 million rand (equivalent to 16 - 27 million USD) per year for 3 - 5 years to compensate the South African media industry. At the same time, improve the search engine to increase access to local news agencies.
In addition, Meta's Facebook and X platform were asked to stop "reducing priority" for posts from South African media containing links in main news sections. On the other hand, Meta and YouTube also need to improve their chances of earning money from news content on their platforms by increasing revenue sharing.
Accordingly, if these companies do not take remedial measures within 6 months after the final report is published, South Africa can impose a digital tax of 5 - 10% on their online advertising revenue.
Google has responded and said it will consider a detailed report, however, it has denied accusations of unnecessary profiteering from publishers. This "technology giant" affirmed that in 2023, services such as Google Search and News brought about 350 million rand (equivalent to 19 million USD) in access traffic value to South African media, while their revenue from news-added advertisements reached less than 19 million rand (about 1 million USD).
The South African Competition Commission is expected to release a final report by the end of 2025, while stakeholders have until April 7 to comment.
