Azra Hoosen | ah@radioislam.co.za
6 March 2024 | 15:30 CAT
2 min read

The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has expressed concern over the impact of big tech companies’ secrecy and opaque algorithms on the South African news media.

Sanef provided feedback to the Competition Commission, highlighting how secret algorithms and data privacy are hurting online news publications.

Sanef chairperson Sbu Ngalwa emphasised the uncertainty facing the industry regarding advertising performance and revenue due to the lack of transparency. The Competition Commission initiated an inquiry into digital news distribution platforms to address market features that impede competition and undermine the local news sector. The inquiry, launched in October, is ongoing, with various stakeholders, including media organisations and digital platforms, providing input to the commission. These features are believed to impede, distort, or restrict competition, ultimately undermining the South African news sector.

Sanef’s chairperson, Sbu Ngalwa, highlighted the companies in question in an interview with Radio Islam. He said: “We are talking about Google, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Tiktok. When you go into your timeline on social media, you do not see what everyone else is seeing; you see what the algorithm decides you should see based on your interests.”

He asserts that news should be regarded as a constitutional right and a human rights issue. Ngalwa believes that within the purview of the Competition Commission if this notion is affirmed, it opens the door to calling on Big Tech to prioritize credible news sources.

He emphasised that the best way to deal with disinformation is to prioritise credible news and make it more visible.

“The simple criteria for determining who is credible and who isn’t are as follows: Everyone who subscribes to the press council, is a press council member or adopts the SA press code can be regarded as credible,” he said.

Sanef has asked the Commission to strongly consider getting Big Tech to look at fair compensation for using South African media content.

“The biggest call for action is that of fair compensation because it costs money to do journalism. When you send out journalists to cover stories, you pay them salaries, you pay for fuel, however big tech simply takes that content, put it on their platforms and generate revenue from it to advertising,” he said.

Ngalwa cited the findings of a Switzerland study, which revealed that big tech companies rake in up to 40% of Google’s total revenue from news content in that jurisdiction. He argued that this revenue should be shared with news publishers, especially considering the dire situation many media companies face, which leads to shutdowns due to financial constraints.

LISTEN to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat and Sanef’s chairperson, Sbu Ngalwa, here.