By Kolawole Ojebisi
Nigerians may soon be forced to live without Facebook and Instagram in days to come if Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of both social media platforms, makes true its threat following a $220m fine.
This is as Meta registered its displeasure over the recent developments involving the company and authorities in Nigeria.
The company warned that it may have no choice but to shut down Facebook and Instagram in Nigeria, citing the imposition of hefty fines and what it described as “unrealistic” demands from the country’s regulatory authorities for its planned action.
The tech giant issued the warning in a court filing seen by the BBC.
Meta started having a brush with Nigerian regulatory agencies, when on July 19, 2024, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) imposed a $220m fine on the company.
FCCPC cited Meta’s alleged multiple data privacy violations for its decision.
According to FCCPC, its decision was prompted by revelations from a 38-month investigation jointly conducted with Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) into the privacy practices and consumer data policies of WhatsApp and Meta.
Meta’s immediate reaction to FCCPC and NDPC’s findings and subsequent fine was to drag the regulatory bodies before Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal to seek appeal of the decision.
However, on April 25, the tribunal upheld the $220m fine imposed on Meta by the FCCPC.
The court gave the company until the end of June to comply with the orders.
According to the BBC report on Friday, Meta said it may have to “effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures”.
Although Meta also owns WhatsApp, the company did not include the instant messaging platform in its court filing.
The report said Meta’s primary grievance is with the NDPC, which it accused of misinterpreting Nigeria’s data protection laws.
While NDPC alleged Meta had violated data privacy laws and fined it $32.8 million, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) fined the company $37.5 million over unapproved advertising.
According to the BBC, NDPC is insisting that Meta must seek prior approval before transferring Nigerian users’ data abroad — a demand the company called “unrealistic”.
The NDPC had also directed Meta to develop and display educational content on data privacy risks through a dedicated icon on its platforms.
The videos are expected to be produced in collaboration with government-approved institutions and non-profit organisations, and should address issues around manipulative and unfair data processing.
However, the publication said Meta pushed back, describing the conditions as “unworkable” and asserting that the agency has failed to properly interpret the country’s data laws.
Meanwhile, Meta has yet to publicly confirm its next course of action.
The company’s last reaction to the tribunal’s decision was that it would urgently apply to stay the order and appeal the ruling of Nigeria’s Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal.
“We are urgently applying to stay the order and appeal today’s decision to avoid any impact to users,” Meta said last week in the wake of tribunal’s ruling.
