Since the advent of social media, humanity has felt both the negative and positive effects of big tech companies. With the EU seeking to clamp them down, a media expert weighs in on big tech;s influence in South Africa. Picture: Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
“The Big Tech platforms have built their empires on the back of the hard work of traditional media companies.”
This is the sentiment shared by Lance Witten, editor of IOL, a journalist that has worked in both print and digital format and has also overseen a migration from print to digital media.
As someone who has attended countless sessions, seminars and conferences online, in South Africa and overseas, he can attest to how influential, ironically, big tech companies have been in shaping the media landscape we see before us today.
While social media platforms has given humanity the ability to “go viral”, they have, to an extent, cornered the advertising market and created an ecosystem where media companies are reliant on them, Witten believes.
“So while there has been great benefit in them helping us achieve greater discoverability and the opportunity to go viral, we are bound by their rules and algorithms in order to distribute our content.
“In the past, media owned the means of production and distribution; in the current digital age, our means of distribution are being taken out of our hands, and due to the fact that we are forced to use their tools to create our content as well, our means of production are slowly being devolved to those Big Tech platforms as well.
“It’s been both a blessing and a curse,” Witten said.
Big tech companies in Europe are also coming under heavy fire for the manner and freedom with which they have previously operated.
On Monday, EU on Monday hit Apple, Google parent Alphabet and Meta with the first ever probes under a mammoth digital law, which could lead to big fines against the US giants, AFP reported.
Among six firms named as market "gatekeepers" under the EU's landmark Digital Markets Act -- along with Amazon, TikTok owner ByteDance and Microsoft -- the companies have been obliged to comply with the new law since March 7.
EU's internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton said they were no convinced by the solutions Alphabet, Apple and Meta provided to create a fairer and more open digital space for European citizens and businesses.
One of the main tech lobbying groups, CCIA, whose members include the three giants targeted, lambasted the probes, accusing the EU of "jumping the gun" and acting too hastily.
The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, insisted regulators had "definitely" not rushed to probe the companies.
Prior to this, the EU also announced it was launching a probe into one of the worlds largest software company’s, Adobe,.
The European Commission, acting in its role as the EU competition regulator, opened an investigation Adobe's planned $20 billion takeover of Figma, AFP reported.
The Commission said it was concerned that the merger may reduce competition in the global markets for the supply of interactive product design software and for digital asset creation tools.
Witten too believes that big tech companies can act monopolistic, as media companies have had to bend content and distribution strategies to play by their rules.
“Relevant, newsworthy, authentic, important content is being sacrificed at the altar of virality.
“Our revenues are linked to their programmatic algorithms; we measure our performance using their tools; we are entirely dependent on them for our very existence, which I believe is dangerous.
“Which is why it’s so important for us to have presented our case at the Competition Commission to plead our case and ensure that we are fairly compensated for the work we do,” Witten explained.
IOL