Facing increasing regulatory hurdles and labeling government requests as “unrealistic,” Meta Platforms Inc., the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has cautioned that it might have to cease Facebook and Instagram operations in Nigeria.
This warning surfaced in a court document obtained by the BBC. Meta is currently contesting a $220 million fine levied by Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for purported breaches of data privacy.
The substantial fine is the result of a 38-month collaborative investigation by the FCCPC and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) into the data handling practices of Meta and its messaging service, WhatsApp.
In spite of the April 25 ruling by the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal upholding the fine, Meta has vowed to appeal as it has uptil the end of June to comply.
Meta indicated that to “mitigate the risk of enforcement measures,” it may have to “effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria.”
Notably, the company made no mention of WhatsApp in the court document.
Meta’s primary concerns lie with the NDPC, which the company accuses of misinterpreting the country’s data protection laws.
In addition to the FCCPC fine, the NDPC has fined Meta $32.8 million for alleged privacy breaches, while the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) issued a separate $37.5 million penalty for what it called unapproved advertising content.
Among the regulatory demands is a requirement that Meta obtain prior approval before transferring Nigerian users’ data abroad—a condition the company deems “unrealistic.”
The NDPC has also ordered Meta to create and display educational content on data privacy risks via a dedicated icon on its platforms.
These videos are to be co-produced with approved institutions and non-profits, and must address manipulative and unfair data processing practices.
Meta has pushed back against these directives, describing them as “unworkable” and asserting that the Nigerian authorities have failed to properly interpret their own data laws.
The FCCPC maintains that the fines are the result of thorough investigations conducted between May 2021 and December 2023 in partnership with the NDPC.
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