Nigerian government tells Meta to comply with regulations, says threat won’t save it
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has told Meta Platforms Inc., a global tech giant, to comply with locals laws in the county.
The state-owned regulatory agency said that that Meta’s threat of exit does not absolve it of liabilities or solve issues on ground.
This is contained in a statement on Saturday by Ondaje Ijagwu, the director of corporate affairs at the FCCPC.
In July 2024, FCCPC announced a fine of $220 million against Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, for multiple data privacy violations.
The FCCPC said the penalty followed a joint investigation with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) into Meta Platforms’ conduct, privacy policies, its operations and practices between May 2021 and December 2023.
In response, WhatsApp said it would appeal the fine and threatened to exit the country.
Last month, the competition and consumer protection tribunal unanimously agreed that the $220 million fine the FCCPC imposed on Meta should be paid.
However, the tech firm came out with a threat to shut down the Nigerian operations of Facebook and Instagram in Africa’s largest democracy.
In the statement, the FCCPC said that Meta’s exit threat is a “calculated move” intended to induce negative public reaction and potentially pressure the commission to reconsider its decision.
It added that Meta have repeatedly infringed on Nigerians’ rights by “denying them control over their personal data, sharing user information without authorisation, discriminating against Nigerian users compared to others globally, and imposing unfair privacy policies that exploit their dominant market position.”
“Interestingly, Meta had been fined for similar breaches in Texas ($1.5b) and only recently was asked to pay $1.3 Billion for violating E.U. Data Privacy Rules,” the statement stated.
