Meta faces over $290M in fines from Nigerian authorities
Meta has been fined more than $290 million by three Nigerian authorities. The penalties were issued by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Nigerian Data Protection Commission, and the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria. Each of these authorities fined the company separately, stating that Meta had violated the data privacy rights of consumers in Nigeria.
Some of these violations, which date back to 2021, include not offering users an opt-out option for sharing data from one of Meta’s apps (in this case, WhatsApp) with another. Additionally, Meta is required to issue a detailed data privacy report in accordance with local regulations, but the company has failed to do so for two years.
Local authorities claim that Meta does a better job protecting data privacy rights in other regions, claiming that these alleged double standards are discriminatory. While these claims are yet to be proven, they raise important questions regarding the equal application of data privacy standards by global corporations.
