Multinational technology company Meta has been in the news lately in Nigeria and Ghana – but not necessarily for positive reasons.
In recent days it has reportedly responded to a number of proposed Nigerian fines for alleged consumer data violations by threatening to cut off its social media services Facebook and Instagram in the country. WhatsApp closure was not mentioned, though Nigeria has specifically accused Meta of violating the country’s data protection and consumer rights laws on Facebook and WhatsApp.
The Meta statement followed events last week when a Nigerian tribunal rejected Meta’s appeal against a US$220 million fine imposed in 2024 by the country’s consumer protection agency, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC). Meta apparently has until the end of June to pay the fine.
According to the BBC, Meta has 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 has suggested that FCCPC and Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) investigations carried out between May 2021 and December 2023 that supposedly revealed “invasive practices against data subjects/consumers in Nigeria” contained multiple inaccuracies and, in particular, misrepresented how WhatsApp works.
WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram are among the most popular social media platforms in the country.
In Ghana meanwhile, lawyers are said to be probing what are called ‘dire’ workplace conditions for Meta content moderators, suggesting that the moderators have had to view ‘distressing’ and ‘bloody’ content without adequate mental health care. There have also been accusations that workers have been sacked for trying to unionise.
The probe follows multiple labour-related lawsuits launched in recent years over conditions at Meta’s content moderating hub in Nairobi. News reports say that the Kenyan centre (now closed) was, like the hub in Ghana, run by a third-party contractor, not Meta itself.
