Nigeria has fined Meta $220 million after an investigation found that data sharing on the company’s platforms violated data protection and privacy laws in the country.Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says Meta appropriated data belonging to Nigerian users without their consent and “abused its market dominance by forcing exploitative privacy policies on users, and meted out discriminatory and disparate treatment on Nigerians, compared with other jurisdictions with similar regulations,” Reuters reports.The issue is that Meta doesn’t allow users to withhold their consent for the gathering, use, and sharing of their personal data.”The totality of the investigation has concluded that Meta over the protracted period of time has engaged in conduct that constituted multiple and repeated, as well as continuing infringements… particularly, but not limited to abusive, and invasive practices against data subjects in Nigeria,” FCCPC chief Adamu Abdullahi said. “Being satisfied with the significant evidence on the record and that Meta has been provided every opportunity to articulate any position, representations, refutations, explanations, or defenses of their conduct, the Commission has now entered a final order and issued a penalty against Meta,”
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Meta was recently fined 1.2 billion Lira (around $36 million US) in Turkey over similar concerns.
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