In a
landmark decision, Nigeria's Federal Competition and Consumer Protection
Commission (FCCPC) has fined Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook,
Instagram, and WhatsApp, $220 million for violating local consumer, data
protection, and privacy laws.
The
FCCPC announced on Friday that its investigations, conducted jointly with
Nigeria's Data Protection Commission over 38 months, found Meta guilty of
appropriating Nigerian users' data without consent, abusing its market
dominance, and meting out discriminatory treatment to Nigerians compared to
other jurisdictions.
According
to FCCPC chief Adamu Abdullahi, Meta's policies do not allow users to opt-out
or withhold consent to the gathering, use, and sharing of personal data. The
investigations concluded that Meta engaged in "multiple and repeated, as
well as continuing infringements... particularly, but not limited to abusive,
and invasive practices against data subjects in Nigeria."
The
final order mandates Meta to take steps to comply with local laws, including
seeking consent from Nigerian users before collecting, using, and sharing their
personal data.
This
development comes after Turkey's competition board fined Meta 1.2 billion lira
in May for similar data-sharing violations on its platforms. Meta has faced
pushback in Europe and other jurisdictions over alleged breaches of data
protection laws, including its plan to use personal data to train its
artificial intelligence models without seeking consent.
By: Nana Appiah Acquaye
