Covering big tech responsibly
You are a journalist reporting on business affairs or technology. You understand why fair compensation for media content matters to your editors and managers — but perhaps it feels too complex, abstract for your audiences. Here are a few reasons why it is relevant for them.
The obvious one is freedom of speech. Public interest media are crucial for meaningful public dialogue in an informed society. They must finance their journalism from diverse sources—including getting their fair share of the revenue Big Tech generates from their content.
If your media outlet does not receive fair compensation, readers might one day wake up to find it gone—along with their favorite YouTuber's channel or the TikTok creator they used to watch every evening. Much of our information ecosystem depends on Big Tech’s infrastructure, while media outlets provide much of the journalistic content accessed through it.
A recent studyon Germany estimated that 12 percent of Google's ad revenue comes from searches for journalistic content. For the German market, this translates into about 1.3 billion euros annually that Google effectively "owes" to German media outlets.
The problem goes far beyond media
Big Tech doesn't just distort the business models of public interest media—it affects nearly every enterprise operating online. Tech giants decide who ranks first in search results and control the online advertising market. As a result, much of the profit stays with them.
"In an economy where a handful of US tech giants control most of the business models online and information flows, there is a very limited set of business opportunities available," says Courtney Radsch from the Center for Journalism and Libertyin the US.
Reporting about Big Tech, therefore, is not only for technology enthusiasts—it's about equal economic opportunity and the sustainability of digital economies.
AI and the scraping of the internet pose new threats to businesses
AI companies are accused of using publicly available internet content without permission or compensation to train their large language models. Their controversial argument: the content is already online and publicly available.
Websites can block AI crawlers, but reports suggest that AI companies don’t always comply. This problem goes beyond journalism and public interest media—any business with an online presence risks contributing involuntarily to Big Tech's business model.
For example, if a solar panel company publishes information about optimizing energy use, AI models can scrape this data to train their chatbots. When users later ask similar questions, the chatbot provides the answer—without ever directing traffic back to the company’s site.
Research from software company Ahrefsfound that Google’s AI Overviews correlate with a 34.5% lower clickthrough rate for the top-ranking page compared to similar searches without AI overviews.
Public service journalism as a solution
Public interest journalism is a public good—vital for democracy and informed societies. Yet, in the digital age, it’s increasingly difficult to make journalism financially viable. UNESCOand other organizations have therefore called for journalism to be recognized and supported as a public good.
Journalists can play a crucial role in shaping public understanding and debate about Big Tech’s impact. Too often, the influence of “the internet” on economic and social life is treated as a force of nature when in fact, societies can shape these dynamics through democratic regulation.
By connecting the dots between missing regulation, distorted competition and the challenges faced by audiences, journalists can make the complex issue easier to grasp for audiences and stress their urgency.
Solution-oriented journalism can also spotlight successful examples of regulating Big Tech and AI, highlight civil society efforts and feature open-source alternatives that operate outside Big Tech’s commercial logic.
Finally, journalists can hold lawmakers accountable by asking how they plan to protect citizens and businesses from an online ecosystem dominated by a handful of powerful corporations.
What are the most important aspects to look deeper into?
How unregulated Big Tech affects the businesses of your audiences.
Governance questions: What can governments do to create a level playing field?
Solution-oriented journalism: How societies can fight back and regulate effectively.
Hidden labor behind AI: Many workers in the Global South are paid minimal wages to make AI chatbots “less toxic” by filtering through disturbing content — often at great emotional cost.
Experiences from other countries
In Brazil, civil society efforts have been crucial in advancing discussions on platform responsibility. The digital journalism association Ajor highlights how collaboration with the digital rights community has driven legislative progress—though small publishers still depend heavily on legal frameworks to ensure fair compensation.
In South Africa, the Competition Commission’s market inquiry into media and digital platforms marks a major step in the region’s regulatory efforts. A coalition including the GIBS Media Leadership Think Tank emphasized that this issue goes beyond market competition—it’s about basic human rights. There is growing recognition of the need for cross-border collective bargaining to effectively engage with digital platforms.
In Nigeria, Meta has threatened to withdraw Facebook and Instagram after being fined roughly 290 million USD for violating various regulations—a response that contrasts sharply with its more compliant approach to EU oversight.
Authors: Elena Milliken, Ines Drefs, Dr. Rose Kimani, Attila Mong and Erik Albrecht
