Nigeria slaps Meta with a fine

Found guilty of data sharing and other invasive practices, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram was issued with a $290-million penalty. By Tolu Olarewaju and Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada

- By Tolu Olarewaju and Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, was recently hit with three fines totalling more than $290-million in Nigeria. The fines were imposed by Nigeria's Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Nigerian Data Protection Commission and the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria.

Meta was accused of invasive practices against data subjects and consumers in Nigeria. The company denied the allegations and has challenged the fines in court.

What are the violations for which Meta got fined?

The trouble began on 4 January 2021 when WhatsApp updated its privacy policy to introduce mandatory data-sharing with Facebook (now Meta) and its subsidiaries. The main change allowed WhatsApp to share user business interaction data with Facebook for marketing and advertising purposes.

The updated policy did not include an opt-out provision. It was a “take it or leave it” policy. In other words, if users did not consent to the updated terms, they would no longer be able to use WhatsApp. This triggered a Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission investigation into Meta, conducted jointly with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission. The probe was conducted from May 2021 to December 2023.

Meta has allegedly not complied with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, and failed to appoint a Data Protection Compliance Organisation. That's an entity licensed to assist data controllers and processors in achieving compliance with Nigeria's data protection regulations. It has not submitted its mandatory Nigeria Data Protection Regulation reports for two consecutive years.

Nigeria is the most populous country on the continent, with about 236 million people. It has about 107 million internet users. The most used social media platforms at the end of 2024 were WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Telegram.