Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has been fined $220 million in Nigeria after investigations by the country’s tech watchdog concluded the company violated local laws on data protection and consumer privacy, according to an official statement.
Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) states that Meta engaged in “abusive” and “invasive” practices against Nigerian users. These practices included appropriating personal data without informed consent, discriminatory management, and disparate treatment of consumers compared to other regions with similar regulatory frameworks.
The watchdog accuses Meta of abusing its market dominance by “forcing unscrupulous, exploitative, and non-compliant privacy policies” and harvesting users’ personal information without giving them the options to determine or consent to the gathering of their information.
The investigation was conducted between May 2021 and December 2023 by the FCCPC and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), according to the press statement. The watchdog says it holds “significant evident on the record” on Meta’s alleged violations, which took place across WhatsApp and Facebook. Meta’s practices breached the country’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018, the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation, 2019, among other laws.
The tech conglomerate, referred to as “Meta Parties” in the investigation, denied Nigerian users the right to self-determine the use of their personal data, transferred and shared their information without prior consent for cross-border storage, and abused its dominance, along with a discriminatory treatment towards Nigerian users, the FCCPC says.
“The final order of the Commission mandates steps and actions that Meta parties must take to comply with prevailing law and cease the exploitation of Nigerian consumers and their market abuse,” the statement reads, adding the company must refrain from engaging in practices that violate national regulatory frameworks and undermine the rights of consumers.
In its response to a Nigerian news outlet, Meta said it disagrees with the FCCPC’s decision and is planning to appeal against it. “We disagree with the decision today as well as the fine and Meta will be appealing the decision,” Meta told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). “In 2021, we went to users globally to explain how talking to businesses among other things would work and while there was a lot of confusion then, it has proven quite popular.”
