WhatsApp announced that its parent company, Meta, will be appealing the $220 million fine imposed by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for violating Nigeria’s data privacy laws.
This statement was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos. The reaction follows a statement from the FCCPC, signed by its acting Executive Chairman, Adamu Abdullahi, which asserted that Meta had denied Nigerian users control over their data.
WhatsApp stated that in 2021, they informed users globally about how interactions with businesses would work. Despite initial confusion, this feature has since become quite popular.
It stated, “We disagree with the decision today as well as the fine and Meta will be appealing the decision.”
“In 2021, we went to users globally to explain how talking to businesses among other things would work and while there was a lot of confusion then, it has actually proven quite popular,”
Backstory
On Friday, Nairametrics reported that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) imposed a $220 million penalty on Meta Platforms Incorporated for alleged discriminatory practices against Nigerian data and consumers.
This penalty follows a joint investigation by the FCCPC and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) into Meta’s conduct, privacy policies, and practices between May 2021 and December 2023.
The Commission concluded that Meta’s actions over this 38-month period constituted continuing infringements of the FCCPA and NDPC regulations. The FCCPC stated that, after reviewing the evidence and providing Meta Parties with ample opportunity to present their position, representations, refutations, explanations, or defenses, it has entered a final order.
What you should know
Fines such as this against Meta are not uncommon, last year the European Data Protection Agency fined tech giant Facebook with a record €1.2 billion fine for not complying with the EU’s privacy rulebook.
The Irish Data Protection Commission stated that Meta- the parent company of Facebook violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by transferring large amounts of European Facebook users’ personal data to the United States without adequately protecting them from U.S. data surveillance practices.
Amazon had previously been fined €746 million by Luxembourg, and the Irish regulator imposed four fines on Meta’s platforms—Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—ranging from €225 million to €405 million between 2021 and 2023.
Over the past five years, Big Tech companies Amazon, Meta, and Google have been on the receiving end of the largest fines imposed under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy laws.
