People in Nigeria may lose access to Facebook and Instagram after parent company Meta said it faced large fines and “unrealistic” regulatory demands from the Nigerian authorities.
Last year, three Nigerian oversight agencies imposed fines on the US-based social media giant totalling more than $290m (£218m) for violating various laws and regulations.
Meta was unsuccessful in a recent attempt to challenge the decisions in the federal high court in Abuja.
“The applicant may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures,” the company said in the court papers.
Meta also owns WhatsApp, but it did not mention the messaging service in its statement.
The high court has given the company until the end of June to pay the fines. The BBC said it has asked Meta to outline what its next steps will be but has not yet received a response.
Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform in Nigeria and is used by tens of millions in the country for daily communication and sharing news. It is also a vital tool for many of Nigeria’s small online businesses.
In July last year, Meta was asked to pay three fines: The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) imposed a $220m fine for alleged anti-competitive practices. The advertising regulator fined the company $37.5m over unapproved advertising.
And the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) alleged Meta had violated data privacy laws and fined it $32.8m.
FCCPC chief executive officer Adamu Abdullahi said investigations carried out in conjunction with the data commission between May 2021 and December 2023 revealed “invasive practices against data subjects/consumers in Nigeria” but was not specific about what these were.
In its court submission, Meta said its “primary concern” was with the data commission, which it accused of “misinterpreting” data privacy laws.
Specifically, the commission has demanded that Meta seek prior approval before transferring any personal data out of Nigeria – a condition that Meta called “unrealistic”.
The data commission also imposed other demands. Meta was told it must provide an icon linking to educational videos about data privacy risks. This would be content created in collaboration with government-approved educational institutions and non-profit organisations.
The NDPC insisted that these videos highlight the dangers of “manipulative and unfair data processing” that could expose Nigerian users to health and financial risks.
Meta described the NDPC’s demands as unfeasible, saying that the agency has failed to “properly interpret the laws guiding data privacy”.
