The South African Competition Commission has released its final Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry report, highlighting how dominant tech platforms like Google and Meta undermine local news media. The report, tabled in Parliament by Minister Parks Tau, proposes remedies including financial contributions and regulatory alignments to support journalism sustainability. It warns that media downsizing threatens democracy and diversity.
The Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI), launched in October 2023, culminated in its final report released on November 13, 2025, in Sandton, Johannesburg. Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau received the report for tabling in Parliament, emphasizing that the shift to online news consumption has decimated advertising revenue for traditional media, leading to downsizing and closures that threaten democracy, media diversity, and plurality.
The inquiry scrutinized platforms including Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok, X, and AI companies, finding they dominate access to news and information in South Africa. It identified adverse effects such as Google's super-dominant position in the AdTech stack, which entrenches monopolies and harms small, historically disadvantaged, and vernacular media. The report states, “The conduct has an adverse impact on the quality and consumer choice of SA news media, particularly the diversity of media through SME and HDP-owned media.” Social media platforms throttle referral traffic—Meta reduced it by 80% since 2020—and create bargaining imbalances that exclude small publishers from monetization.
AI developers have trained models on South African news content without compensation, with little interest in deals for local outlets. The report notes, “There is currently little interest from AI companies in doing content deals with SA news publishers.”
Remedies include Google and YouTube's R688-million media support package over five years, funding national, community, and vernacular media, plus training and ad sales support for the SABC. Google must extend EU and US AdTech remedies to South Africa. Meta will provide ad credits, a media liaison office, and digital training. YouTube offers automatic Partner Programme access; TikTok enables article links; Microsoft contracts five outlets for MSN; X is urged to stop penalizing links, though it did not cooperate.
The South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) welcomed the findings, with spokesperson Hopewell Radebe stating, “This is better than nothing at this stage.” However, recommendations are not enforceable, relying on stakeholder implementation. The report calls for collective negotiations and a social media ombud to address misinformation, underscoring news as a public good essential for democracy.