Meta has announced a comprehensive support programme for South African news publishers in partnership with the Press Council, delivering training, advertising credits, and technical assistance following a Competition Commission order.
The tech giant will fund a multi-faceted programme including a liaison office at the Press Council to provide hands-on support for subscriber publications, quarterly training workshops, and advertising credits through an independent vendor.
The collaboration aims to help Press Council publishers maximise opportunities on Meta platforms while contributing to the sustainability of South Africa’s co-regulatory system for quick and easy adjudication of complaints about media coverage.
Meta will deliver in-person training programmes covering platform best practices, content monetisation, audience growth, and artificial intelligence tools. The company has also committed to ongoing investment in digital literacy initiatives reaching millions of South Africans.
The liaison office will assist publishers with fast resolution of strategic, operational, and technical issues through dedicated support roles.
Meta and the Press Council are finalising remaining implementation steps and will announce full programme details, participation requirements, and launch dates soon.
The partnership follows the Competition Commission’s final report on the media and digital platforms market inquiry, published in November 2025, which ordered Meta to implement remedies assisting Press Council subscriber publications “with a powerful, comprehensive and effective programme which they can leverage for sustainable growth.”
The inquiry, launched in 2023, investigated how global digital platforms affected South African news media. The two-year investigation examined search engines, social media platforms, digital advertising services, and artificial intelligence tools including Google, Meta, X, TikTok, YouTube, ChatGPT, and Gemini.
Investigators found that digital platforms wielded significant power over news publishers, distorting competition and threatening media diversity. The provisional report, released in February 2025, criticised Meta for deprecating news posts and links on its platforms, reducing referral traffic and monetisation opportunities for news organisations.
Meta agreed to make available $2.5 million (about R46 million) in new funding over three years to support South African news publishers as part of the remedial commitments.
The inquiry also secured major commitments from other platforms. Google and YouTube agreed to a R688 million media support package funding national, community, and vernacular media through content licensing, innovation grants, and capacity-building initiatives. Microsoft extended its MSN news contracts to include five additional national publishers.
The Commission’s provisional report estimated that Google’s conduct, including overrepresentation of global media and underrepresentation of local and vernacular news, cost South African publishers between R300 million and R500 million annually.
The Press Council operates South Africa’s independent co-regulatory system for print and online media. Publications subscribing to the Press Code of Ethics and Conduct commit to ethical journalism standards and independent adjudication of public complaints through the Press Ombud.
Subscriber publications are exempted from Film and Publications Board regulations in recognition of the expanded co-regulatory system applying to online content.
The Commission warned that if companies fail to implement agreed remedies within six months of the final report, it may impose a digital advertising levy of 5% to 10%.
Most major platforms agreed to implement the recommended remedies immediately following the final report’s publication.
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