Johannesburg – Google will pay more than $40 million to support South African news media, many of them floundering in a digital age, the country’s competition authority said on Thursday.
“Google will also introduce new user tools to prioritise local news sources, provide technical assistance to improve website performance, share enhanced audience data,” the commission said, adding that YouTube had also agreed to support monetisation.
The platforms also committed to removing algorithmic bias favouring foreign outlets, it said.
Similar funding deals have been reached in countries including Taiwan, Canada, Australia and the United States in the face of mounting pressure from governments to introduce regulations requiring such arrangements.
Chinese social media platform TikTok had meanwhile agreed to provide new tools, including allowing media to insert links within videos to monetise off-platform content.
Social media platform X, owned by South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, did not reach a settlement and has been ordered to make all monetisation programmes available to local publishers and to provide training workshops.
The directive can be appealed, the commission said.
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Source: AFP
