Facebook and Whatsapp’s parent firm Meta Inc has been fined $200 million by the Nigerian government over what it says “multiple and repeated” violations of the country’s data protection and consumer rights laws.
In a statement(PDF), the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) said Meta violated data laws in Nigeria in five years including sharing the data of Nigerians without authorization, denying consumers the right to self-determine the use of their data, discriminatory practices and abuse of market dominance. Nigeria is Africa’s mos populous nation with over 200 million people with over 154 million active internet subscribers and a big market for Meta.
FCCPC chief executive Adamu Abdullahi said in a statement that Meta Parties have been provided every opportunity to articulate their position and the Commission has now entered a Final Order, and issued a penalty against Meta.”
The commission adds that Meta has failed to comply with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation, has not engaged the Data Protection Compliance Organization and hasn’t filed its data protection regulation audit report for two years and should pay the fine, comply with the local laws and cease the “exploitation” of its consumers in Nigeria.
The commission says its investigation commenced in May 2021 after WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy. Its findings show that there were blatant user violations and instead of Meta fixing them, it proposed a “remedy package” instead of fixing the initial concerns.