Concerns Arise as Facebook Ceases News Content in Various Markets Amidst Global Regulatory Scrutiny

A group in South Africa that studies media issues is worried about Facebook’s recent choice to stop showing news in some places. They’re concerned because many countries are looking into whether big tech companies are making too much money from sharing news without spending on creating it.

A person named Michael Markovitz, who has a lot of experience in media and used to be on the board of SABC, shared these worries during a meeting about competition in media and digital platforms in Pretoria. He questioned why Facebook decided to stop showing news just when regulators worldwide are looking into how big tech companies operate.

Markovitz, who started and leads a think tank called the Gordon Institute of Business Science’s Media Leadership Think Tank, thinks it’s not fair for a company with billions of users to benefit from news content for a long time and then suddenly decide not to share news when regulators are paying more attention.

Recently, Meta Platforms, the company that owns Facebook, said they would no longer have a section promoting news in Australia and the US, following a similar move in the UK, Germany, and France last year. People believe this decision is because of new rules that require big tech companies to pay news sources for using their content.

The Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, didn’t like Meta’s decision. He said it’s not how things are done in Australia for one company to make money from other people’s investments in journalism and people.

Markovitz thinks that South African lawmakers will face similar problems when trying to make any actions resulting from the meeting about competition in media enforceable. He wants the commission to not only deal with this issue in South Africa but also set an example for other developing countries.

He mentioned a situation in Canada where publishers complained against Meta for stopping news on Facebook. Markovitz thinks the commission should look into such cases because Meta’s actions stop news outlets from working on a platform owned by a very big company.

In summary, people around the world are getting worried about how big tech companies make decisions about showing news. South Africa’s way of dealing with this might influence other developing countries to do the same.