Google will pay more than $40 million to support South African news media, many of them floundering in a digital age, the country’s competition authority said Thursday.

Tech giants, including TikTok, X and Facebook, have come under fire for anti-trust practices that the watchdog says hurt local media by limiting their ability to distribute and profit from their digital content.

In February, the Competition Commission had recommended that Google pay up to $27 million a year for five years, following a 16-month investigation that found Google searches favoured international news over local outlets.

But the California-based company ultimately agreed to a 688 million-rand ($40.4-million) funding package, the commission said Thursday as it released its final report.

Under the agreement, $4

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