JOHANNESBURG - Social media platforms and search engines like Google may essentially be stealing money from media outlets.
Regulators in the US, UK, Canada and Australia have already tried to force tech giants to pay for content.
Now the Competition Commission wants to find out how deep the problem is in South Africa.
It's set up a market inquiry into the use of search engines, social media sites and even artificial intelligence.
The commission says independent media may be threatened if it is not properly funded.
"We want to encourage a space where news production is not influenced by the advertising muscle in the media space," said Siyabulela Makunga.
"We want to look into whether the sector is efficient, transparent in its generating of advertising revenue. We want to ensure there is a balance in utilisation of these platforms and there is no anti-competitive in the sector.”