Big techhaals uitand shows local publishers the money in pilot training project. Disclosure: Daily Maverick is the chosen training partner in one phase of Google’s settlement agreement – specifically the local language publisher training. While Marianne Erasmus, Google news partner lead for our region, tries to play this local language publisher workshop roadshow that kicked off this week in Cape Town as an inspired pilot project, it is one part of the R688-million settlement between the Competition Commission and the tech giant.
The workshop is basically to teach publishers how to use Google tools in their own vernacular language. At the event, the vibes were immaculate. Abongile Mashele, Google lead on government affairs and public policy, code-switched between Xhosa and English, charming the room of independent publishers.“Ngikhule ngifunda uVukani,”(I grew up reading Vukani) she tells us, grounding the initiative in personal nostalgia and her “deeply personal desire to empower the production ecosystem”.
It was a good line. And this is an exciting initiative, but it is also a direct, enforceable output of the Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI). The settlement agreement earmarked R11.6-million over three years for total training support, distinct from the R38-million annual spend on the Digital News Transformation Fund.
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Google is framing this as a global pilot, a test case for how the search giant interacts with the media hounds in the Global South. But viewed from the cheap seats of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, it looks less like innovation and more like paying the bill. The timing is spicy.
The launch lands squarely in the middle of a political tussle over Big Tech’s accountability to the South African state. Communications Minister Solly Malatsi has recently fallen foul of the portfolio committee, specifically regarding the Starlink debate, but the sentiment bleeds into every interaction with Silicon Valley. Shaik Imraan Subrathie, a member of the portfolio committee, told Daily Maverick about the renewed rigour to audit Big Tech.
“If you have committed yourself to do X, Y and Z to operate in this country, we (the portfolio committee) want to see that delivery,” he said. Subrathie pointed to a “gap in terms of accountability” where intentions often outpace evidence. His message is that the state is “seized with impact”.
It’s not enough to tick a box saying you trained 100 people. “How have you impacted the lives of the people? We want to hear the stories.”
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