FG fines Meta $220 million for violating consumer, data laws

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FG said it has imposed a fine of $220 million on Meta Platforms its competition watchdog said on Friday, after investigations revealed that the transfer of data on social media platforms, infringed on local consumer, data protection and privacy laws.

The Nigerian Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission FCCPC accused Meta of taking user data on its platforms in Nigeria without authorization and abusing its domination in the market to impose exploitative policies on users’ privacy while providing discriminatory and prejudicial treatment for Nigerian citizens as compared to citizens of similar jurisdictions of the globe.

Meta did not immediately respond to the request but the FCCPC, in a statement said, that Meta has availed some of the documents demanded and the company has also hired lawyers to represent and deal with the agency.

FCCPC director-general Adamu Abdullahi said the investigations were conducted in collaboration with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission and took 38 months.

The investigations discovered that Meta does not have policies that permit the user the choice or chance to select or decline in determining or controlling the gathering, utilization, and sharing of personal data, Abdullahi said.

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“Summing all the transgressions of the investigation, it has been determined that over several years Meta has committed multiple and repeated, and continuous infringements… especially but not limited to the abuse and invasion of data subjects in Nigeria,” Abdullahi stated.

‘With much entailing offered and being satisfied with abundant evidence on record and Meta having been availed opportunity to state any position which they wanted to advance, any representation and response they wished to make, any explanation or defence to their conduct,’ Abdullahi said the Commission had passed a final order and imposed a penalty against Meta.

The last order prescribes measures and undertakings that Meta needs to observe to adhere to the country’s laws, Abdullahi noted.

Data protection in May saw Turkey’s competition board fine Meta 1.2 billion lira after investigations into the data sharing on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp.

The Facebook parent company, Meta, has received criticism, especially in Europe and other jurisdictions, regarding privacy violations thought to violate data protection laws.

Europeans have criticized Meta for wanting to train its AI models using personal data collected without the users’ consent.

On the other hand, South Africa’s competition authority has said they want to launch probes into whether Meta and other digital platforms are pulling off the twin evil of using news aggregator’s content to make ads money while competing with the news aggregator at the same time.