Are Tech Companies Allies or Threats to Press Freedom?
In 2026, this will be the question that matters most to journalists.
Last month, I attended a conference put on by theDitchley Foundation titled “The Role of the New Fourth Estate in Renewing Democracy.” The central question that arose concerned the proper relationship between the people who provide information and the profit-seeking distributors of that content. Are journalists and publishers, creators and platforms, really allies in the knowledge economy? Or are their fundamental aims so at odds that any alliance is not just undesirable but dangerous?
The extent to which tech platforms act against the interests of a free press has always been a subject of contention. The increasing entanglement of US foreign policy with the health of tech platforms and AI companies, and the undeniable hostility of the current US government toward journalists, has further implications for the future relationship between tech companies and the press. Meta’s withdrawal from support for third-party fact-checking, a year ago, and Google’s cooling on similar schemes were an early warning of the ways that the industry would align itself with the Trump administration.
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