In Brazil, South Africa, and Spain, economic law presents an opportunity to regulate platforms and safeguard reliable information. The practices of platforms like Google and Meta significantly impact the economic sustainability of journalistic endeavors and the diversity of information within democracies. By diminishing revenue streams for independent and local media, tech giants contribute to market concentration, posing risks to public opinion diversity and citizens' access to diverse, trustworthy information sources. It is crucial for competition authorities to intervene, ensuring a fair playing field and holding Google accountable for its journalistic content usage. Several countries are taking action, setting precedents for others to follow.
Vincent Berthier, Head of RSF's Technology and Journalism Desk, highlights the detrimental effects of Google's practices on competition. These include:
- Forced reliance on Google-driven traffic: Publishers face a significant loss of audience if not indexed by Google, making it challenging to break free without compromising visibility.
- Erosion of media business models: Reduced traffic translates to lower direct revenues, forcing publishers to become even more dependent on advertising tools that dominate the market.
- Unfair extraction of newsroom value: Google's display of article excerpts in search results captures attention and advertising revenue, while diminishing traffic to media outlets.
- Promotion of AI-generated answers: By prioritizing AI responses, Google keeps users on its platform, reducing or eliminating clicks on news sites, and rendering some journalism invisible.
A global movement is emerging, emphasizing the effectiveness of economic law in addressing business models that prioritize profit over the right to reliable information.
- In Spain, a landmark fine of 479 million EUR was imposed on Meta in November 2025 for violating the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- South Africa's Competition Commission, after a two-year investigation, acknowledged the dominance of major platforms in information access and proposed concrete solutions, with Google agreeing to pay several million ZAR to South African media and YouTube guaranteeing access to its partnership program.
- In France, a project to temporarily remove press content from search results was halted in February 2025, as it was deemed harmful to press freedom and the right to reliable information.
