Meta battles fines, threatens to shut Facebook, Instagram in Nigeria

Meta, on Saturday, May 3, 2025, vowed to fight Nigerian fines for various consumer data violations, threatening to cut off Facebook and Instagram in Africa’s most populous country.

A tribunal last week rejected Meta’s appeal against a $220 million fine imposed by Nigeria’s consumer protection agency, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).

In appeals court papers cited by various media, including the BBC and The Africa Report, Meta said it “may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures.”

Meta’s social media platforms – WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram – are among the most popular in the country.

Meta has until the end of June to pay the fine.

“We disagree with the NDPC’s (Nigerian Data Protection Commission) decision, which fails to take into account the wide range of settings and tools that allow everyone using Facebook and Instagram in Nigeria to control how their information is used,” a Meta spokesperson told AFP.

“We’re committed to protecting user privacy and have appealed the decision,” the company spokesperson said in an email response.

Nigeria had accused Meta of violating the country’s data protection and consumer rights laws on Facebook and WhatsApp.

Tribunal upholds FCCPC’s $220m fine against Meta

FCCPC chief executive officer Adamu Abdullahi had said investigations carried out in conjunction with the NDPC between May 2021 and December 2023 revealed “invasive practices against data subjects/consumers in Nigeria”.

“The FCCPC order contains multiple inaccuracies and misrepresents how WhatsApp works, and we are urgently applying to stay the order and appeal the Tribunal’s decision to avoid any impact to users,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said on Saturday.

On Saturday, the FCCPC described Meta’s reaction as “a calculated move aimed at inducing negative public reaction and potentially pressuring the FCCPC to reconsider its decision.”

In its statement, it said that Meta had been sanctioned for “similar breaches” in Texas, India, South Korea, France, and Australia, but had “never resorted to the blackmail of threatening to exit those countries. They obeyed.”

“Threatening to leave Nigeria does not absolve Meta of liabilities for the outcome of a judicial process,” the statement read.

Nigeria had 164.3 million internet subscriptions as of March, according to figures published on the National Communication Commission’s website.

The Star