Making the Online News: Ofcom raises concerns over Big Tech and future of Media Plurality in the UK

Changing Channels for News Consumption

The news landscape has changed dramatically, Ofcom highlights, as the prevalence of online news provides people with easy access to an ever-wider pool of stories. Ofcom reports that in the UK 66% of people use the internet for news (up from 18% in 2005), with one in seven (14%) adults relying exclusively on online news. Facebook is now the third most popular news source in Britain, after the BBC and ITV. 

In this context, Ofcom’s findings show:

• that people value online intermediaries to help them discover news; 

• the potential polarising effect of social media;

• a lack of clear understanding amongst the public of how online intermediaries curate and recommend news content. 

Regulatory Options

Under existing rules, Ofcom has a statutory duty to secure and maintain a sufficient plurality of providers of different TV and radio services. Ofcom’s view is that there is now a case for new regulatory tools to better address and capture the impact of online intermediaries on plurality. 

Ofcom highlights four potential categories of remedy that could be used:

• increasing transparency – this could mean sharing information with the public, making  data available to independent researchers or a regulator, or explaining in greater detail how their services work;

• empowering user choice – examples include allowing users to change default settings or design of news feeds, or including content warnings and other labels;

• direct interventions to secure plurality – this could include requirements to give prominence to specific categories of media (similar to public service broadcast prominence);

• sustainability of news providers – most likely seeking to maintain news providers’ financial sustainability through competition law and in particular the broader regulatory regime being proposed for online platforms.

EU Context

Ofcom’s program of work fits into the wider context of EU initiatives, as earlier this year the European Commission adopted the European Media Freedom Act (“MFA”), a new set of proposed rules to protect media pluralism and independence in the European Union. The MFA was itself adopted following the EU’s “Study on Media Plurality and Diversity Online”, which investigated the value of safeguarding media plurality and diversity online.

Next Steps

Ofcom is inviting stakeholders to give their views on how its regulatory approach should take shape, in particular by responding to the nine discussion questions raised by the study. Ofcom has announced that it will then make formal recommendations for consideration by the UK Government, currently expected in 2024. 
 

Authored by Oliver Wilson, Alice Wallace-Wright, and Telha Arshad.