Barely 24 hours after the Nigerian government announced that it slammed a $220 million fine on Meta for violating Nigeria’s data privacy laws, WhatsApp has said the company will appeal the fine.
Mata is the parent tech company for Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Instagram and was founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
In a statement issued on Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Lagos, WhatsApp said the company disagrees with the decision by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) regarding its operation in Nigeria.
WhatsApp’s statement read, “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.”
Recall that the Acting Chief Executive Officer of FCCPC, Adamu Abdullahi, had said that Meta had denied Nigerian users control over their data.
According to Mr Abdullahi, a 38-month-long joint investigation by FCCPC and NDPC showed that Meta had shared the users’ data without consent, and abused its market dominance.
He added that, following the outcome of the investigation, the commission imposed a final monetary penalty of $220 million on the tech company.
The statement read, “On May 2021, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (Commission) based on available evidence and sufficient probable cause issued an Order and Notice to Show Cause (ONSC) to WhatsApp LLC and Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly called Facebook Inc.) jointly referred to as ‘Meta Parties’ in respect to this investigation.”
Mr Abdullahi noted that the subject of the ONSC was to relay the commission’s investigative report concerning its findings which revealed that, the Meta Parties, by their conduct have violated the provisions of the FCCPA and NDPR.
