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Daily Maverick
10-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
SA leads charge against Google AIO via pioneering, world-first antitrust action
The past decade and a half have not been kind to the news industry. The near-total capture of advertising revenue by Big Tech has devastated newsrooms around the world, forcing some papers to close and others to cut reporting teams to the bone. As always, there are tough, daring and determined reporters doing their best to expose the stories powerful people don't want us to know about. But they do so in an ever-more-difficult and financially precarious environment. However, a threat has now emerged that threatens the survival of the news as it has existed for hundreds of years. And while the general source of that threat may not be novel (spoiler: it's American Big Tech again), the specific tool is new and insidious: Google's AI Overviews (AIO). When you ask Google a question now, the familiar list of blue links is often shoved out of sight and replaced with an autogenerated summary – the AIO. Stealing In news-related searches, AIO are based on reporting scraped from news pages written by human journalists. To be crystal clear: Google is effectively stealing the reporting done by professional reporters without paying them for it, nor the news publishers they work for. Crucially, AIO also shoves the links to the source articles from publishers down 'below the fold' on the search results page, meaning that, in many cases, they simply won't be clicked through to at all. If users don't click through to the news websites that were scraped to create the AIO, that means Google hasn't just nicked the stories; it has also stolen the advertising revenue that helped pay for the reporters who wrote them. Lose-lose situation That leaves news publishers with a lose-lose situation: either allow their work to be taken for no fee and probably eventually go out of business, or opt out of AIO. But opting out of AIO also means opting out of Google's search indexing. And given Google's 90% share of the global search market, that is broadly equivalent to removing themselves from the internet entirely – and probably eventually going out of business. It's a desperate situation. But the fightback is under way – and South Africa is leading the charge, via a pioneering, world-first antitrust action. South Africa's Competition Commission has issued the most impressive response to this problem of any competition regulator in the world so far. In its provisional report setting out its response, the Competition Commission would order Google to allow news publishers to opt out of having their work stolen, but crucially also allow them to remain on Search, so they don't disappear from the web. Condescension The action by Competition Commission is strong, serious and world-leading – while Google's response smacks of neo-colonial condescension. It says the Competition Commission's plan would 'break' AIO, which has been 'helping people in South Africa more easily learn about complex topics'. We would suggest that if Google is so interested in helping South Africans understand 'complex topics', then perhaps it should stop stealing the work of South African journalists already doing exactly that. Instead, the tech giant has chosen to enter into a cynical embrace of Donald Trump in a naked attempt to gain presidential protection from exactly this kind of action by lawmakers outside the US. That's why it has to be defended. My organisation, Foxglove, is calling on governments, lawmakers, journalists and anybody who cares about the value of good information around the world to speak up for the Competition Commission and to defend it against the attacks it will soon face from some of the world's most powerful people. International fightback Establishing partnerships with other regulators around the world that are taking on this fight, including Australia, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada, is a crucial next step. International partnerships enable joint regulatory investigations into how AIO is hitting news organisations across the globe; prevents any one regulator from being scapegoated by Google; and, through collective action, gives regulators the bargaining power to force Google to accept meaningful changes to its operations. One final point: while Google AIO has the potential to put all non-government press out of business, it is unlikely to wipe them out at the same speed. The biggest publishers may try to cut deals to avoid the worst impacts in the medium term. But small, new, independent and specialist newspapers – often the ones who tell the most important and under-reported stories – won't have the power to make those kinds of deals, even if they wanted to. So they will die first. If we want a world where access to information is not dependent on the benevolence of our rulers, nor the agendas of the owners of the most powerful media companies – or Google's auto-generated slop – then we're going to have to fight for it.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
3 ways Big Tech is vulnerable to European tariff retaliation
President Donald Trump announced widespread tariffs on Wednesday, sending the stock market plunging. One of the more significant of these tariffs is a 20% levy on goods coming from longtime U.S. ally and trade partner the European Union. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen in a press conference on Thursday said the bloc is finalizing a package of retaliatory tariffs on up to roughly $28.4 billion worth of U.S. goods in response to the 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum that took effect last month. While the E.U. is prioritizing negotations, Von der Leyen said the Commission is also now preparing for 'further countermeasures' if discussions fail. Negotiation efforts by the bloc have so far been rebuffed by the Trump administration. The first set of countermeasures will be announced on April 14, EU parliamentary trade committee chair Bernd Lange told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle on Thursday, with the second set likely to come in a month. These countermeasures could target large tech firms, according to European government officials. French government spokesperson Sophie Primas said the EU's response would 'attack online services,' while German economy minister Robert Habeck said everything is on the table when it comes to countermeasures, adding: 'The big tech companies have an incredible dominance in Europe and are largely exempt from European taxes.' Relations between the EU and U.S. have been growing sour, particularly since Trump's election in November. Trump and other administration officials including FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, are vocally upset about Europe's antitrust crackdown on American Big Tech companies, something the administration views as 'overseas extortion and unfair fines and penalties.' Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) were among the major tech names classified as 'gatekeepers' under the 2022 Digital Markets Act, a landmark European antitrust law intended to address anti-competitive practices in the tech industry. All of the magnificent seven tech stocks are down today on the tariffs news. Leading the drop is Apple. Just last month, Google and Apple were found in violation of the DMA, and were sent preliminary findings and action requests respectively. If the companies fail to comply with the orders, they face potential fines, including a fine for Alphabet that would amount to up to 10% of its worldwide revenue. In 2024, Alphabet's worldwide revenue reached approximately $350 billion. The European Commission is expected to issue its first fines under the DMA to Apple and Meta very soon, Politico reported earlier this week. The wider trade environment has factored into EU's decision on the matter, even though the act is technically overseen by the European Commission's competition and digital directorates, according to Politico, which cited a person briefed on the matter. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other company executives have been asking Trump and his trade officials to pressure Brussels to drop the anticipated fines and a cease-and-desist order, according to a Wall Street Journal report from Monday. Meta is reportedly worried that the EU could ask it to sell less personalized ads on it platforms, according to the WSJ, which could undercut its revenue in the region. 'Europe is likely to fight back. It is not likely to withdraw its antitrust and DMA enforcement against the American firms. But whether Trump's bullying will chill Europe's enforcement, we have to wait and see. Europe wants to stand firm,' legal scholar and New York University professor of trade regulation Eleanor Fox told Quartz, calling the antitrust probes 'entirely legitimate.' Europe has shown that 'they're willing to step back,' and 'reinterpret the penalties that might be involved,' Brookings senior fellow Dan Hamilton said. But if this scales into a 'full blown trade war,' the bloc would not shy away from levying major fines on the companies that could even go beyond the antitrust probes. A greater threat to Silicon Valley in the EU's arsenal is the 'anti-coercion instrument,' often referred to as a 'bazooka.' Created during Trump's first term but used mainly against China thus far, the ACI allows the EU to impose trade restrictions on services, intellectual property rights, and foreign direct investment if a country is deemed to be using tariffs on goods to coerce policy changes in the EU. The law is used mostly as a deterrent, but it can be utilized against U.S. tech giants that provide digital services, like Apple, Google, and Meta. Even in that case, however, Hamilton says it can take 'months and months' for the EU to conduct an investigation and get a qualified majority to agree on enacting the ACI. An attack on the services economy would hurt U.S. companies big time. 'Europe's where they make their money, it's the most profitable place in the world for U.S. companies,' Hamilton said, before adding that the services economies of Europe and the U.S. are so deeply intertwined that it will likely hurt Europeans as well. Hamilton says the real problem at hand for Big Tech is not even retaliatory tariffs, but potential court orders over data privacy. U.S. data privacy frameworks have been invalidated by EU courts in the past over being deemed not private enough for European data. To address that, former President Joe Biden signed a Data Privacy Framework with the EU that puts significant importance on an oversight board that would ensure alignment with EU data protection standards. In January, Trump fired all three Democrats on the bipartisan oversight board, stirring concern in the European Parliament. If deemed inadequate, EU courts have the power to shut down data flows across the Atlantic. Any court decision as such would have 'far more serious' implications than any fine, Hamilton said. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The Weekend: Why Nvidia just can't please its insatiable investors
At the forefront of investors' minds last week was the fourth-quarter report card of Nvidia (NVDA), the semiconductor giant whose performance has become a bellwether for AI demand. Having contributed almost a quarter of the S&P 500's (^SPX) growth last year, expectations were high for the American chipmaker, and it delivered once again after the bell on Wednesday, beating estimates with its soaring revenues. However, this didn't seem enough to satisfy investors, and the company's stock price plummeted the next day before recovering some, but not all, of the lost ground. Here are some highlights from the last seven days, plus a glimpse at the week ahead. Nvidia's market cap dips below $3tn as earnings are no match for sky-high expectations The chipmaker's revenue of $39.3 billion topped Wall Street's estimates, as did its forecast turnover for the first three months of 2025. However, there was a fly in the ointment: its outlook for gross margin was below estimates, something that may indicate pricing pressure amid stiffening competition. This undoubtedly played a part in the stock's 8.5% plunge on Thursday. Or perhaps the market has merely become immune to anything less than miraculous from Nvidia (NVDA). "Investors are yawning," as one analyst put it. Top rated European stock alternatives to Nvidia and US Big Tech Nvidia isn't the only member of the Magnificent 7 having a tough time convincing previously awe-struck investors of its long-term appeal. The emergence of China's DeepSeek earlier in February threw an unwelcome spotlight on the level of their AI spending, and strong report cards have done little to aid the recovery of their share prices. For those who are losing their confidence in the American Big Tech behemoths, it turns out there are a number of highly rated European alternatives to get behind. Aston Martin is biggest FTSE 250 loser as EV plans delayed again (Wednesday) It was a bad week for the maker of James Bond's vehicle of choice. Aston Martin (AML.L)'s shares plummeted after it announced job cuts and the further delay of an electric car. 2024 was a challenging year for the luxury carmaker, which twice turned to investors to raise additional funds amid profit warnings. Its stock fell 13% on Wednesday, after the results came out. Why Tesla's stock has given up nearly all of its Trump election gains Another carmaker having a rough ride is Elon Musk's Tesla (TSLA). Its shares are down 40% from an all-time high in December, as a series of political moves by Musk appear to be harming the stock. His unabashed fondness of far-right political is almost certainly alienating wide swaths of the public including customers, and potential Tesla buyers. His forays into politics have also left investors wondering where the CEO's attention lies. Bitcoin price slides further after $2.4bn ETF sell-off It seems like only yesterday bitcoin (BTC-USD) investors were celebrating the landmark breaking of the $100,000 barrier, swiftly followed by an all-time high around the $109,000 mark. Fast-forward a handful of weeks, and the wildly volatile crypto coin is down by almost a quarter from those dizzy heights. At the start of last week bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw outflows of more than $2.4 billion, highlighting a shift in investor sentiment amid increasing market uncertainty. While some analysts are convinced it's not the start of a bear market for the world's biggest cryptocurrency, others fear the economic impact of rising trade tensions could further weigh on it and other risk assets. Do also check out our money stories for all your personal finance needs. There was bad news for those looking to get on to the property ladder as the window on a stamp duty holiday draws to a close: Thousands of first-time buyers face £11,250 stamp duty hike as deadline looms A survey by consumer group Which? assessed the often disappointing experiences of thousands of flyers and ranked the airlines accordingly: Worst airlines in the UK revealed Find more personal finance gems here: Money Matters As inflation refuses to go away, investors will be looking to Costco's (COST) latest results to help gauge retail sentiment, while in China, e-commerce giant ( JD) is due to report its earnings as the threat of additional US trade tariffs looms. This side of the pond, investors will be keen to learn more about Greggs' (GRG.L) outlook for 2025, given the bakery chain's recent slower sales growth. Read more: Stocks to watch next week The state of the nation's credit will be in the spotlight on Monday morning when the Bank of England releases mortgage approvals and individual lending data. Also keep an eye out for S&P's global manufacturing PMI. The property market will be the focus at the end of the week, as Halifax publishes its closely-watched house price index on Friday morning End note: Did you get to enjoy the Magnificent 7? No, not the report cards of Silicon Valley's biggest stars, something arguably even more inspiring. Last night saw a rare seven-planet alignment in the night sky, as Mercury joined its celestial counterparts which had already lined up together in January. Not surprisingly, the hype among stargazers for this rare even was, well, out of this world. If you did miss it, you'll have to wait another 15 years for a repeat performance, according to astronomers. The BBC's Sky at Night magazine explained what all the fuss was about: A seven-planet parade visible on 28 February Watch:Sign in to access your portfolio
