Nigeria imposes $220 million fine on Meta for personal data violations

Nigeria has imposed a $220 million fine on Meta Platforms (META.O), the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, for breaches of antitrust, data protection, and consumer rights laws, as declared by its Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) on Friday. The FCCPC accused Meta of appropriating Nigerian user data without consent, imposing exploitative privacy policies, and delivering discriminatory treatment compared to other jurisdictions with similar regulations. This is prepared by SSP.

The joint investigation, conducted over 38 months by the FCCPC and Nigeria's Data Protection Commission, revealed that Meta’s policies neglected to allow users control over their data, according to FCCPC chief Adamu Abdullahi. "Meta engaged in repeated and invasive data practices against Nigerian users, and showed market dominance abuse," Abdullahi explained.

Significant evidence and the lack of substantial rebuttals or explanations from Meta led to a final order and the issued penalty. The order requires Meta to cease the exploitation of Nigerian consumers, comply with local laws, and avoid future similar conduct. Meta has not yet commented but had been aware of the investigations and even proposed a "remedy package" that failed to meet FCCPC's concerns.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country with 164 million internet subscriptions out of 200 million people, and over 51 million WhatsApp users. Majority of the youth under 24 are prominent users of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. Other jurisdictions, notably the European Union and Turkey, have similarly fined Meta for data privacy violations.

Meta's plan to use personal data for training artificial intelligence models without consent has faced significant backlash in Europe, reflecting a growing global scrutiny on its data practices.

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