Competition Commission calls for Google, social media, AI platforms to relook at their algorithms

JOHANNESBURG - The Competition Commission has called on tech giant Google, social media sites, and AI platforms to relook at their algorithms, as the watchdog clamps down on anti-competitive behaviour affecting local news media outlets.

Google is among global companies found to be diverting web traffic from news outlets to their own services, leading to a loss in ad revenue for South African media.

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This has seen publications battle to keep their doors open and is expected to weaken the media industry further over time.

The commission published a provisional report on the media and digital platforms market inquiry on Monday, following a 16-month investigation.

It said Google, Meta, YouTube, and X need to improve competition, including a move to remove search biases in favour of foreign media.

The inquiry’s chairperson and watchdog’s chief economist, James Hodge, said this was one of the recommendations made in the provisional report.

"It is also proposed that once traffic is sent, South African media is more able to monetise it at a much higher rate with better user data. So, we’re proposing that there’s far more extensive anonymised user data to be shared by search engines to enable improved monetisation by the media."