Millions of Nigerians who rely on social media platforms to connect with each other and transact businesses may soon be locked out of Facebook and Instagram as the platforms’ parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., has warned that it may be forced to shut down the two social media platforms in Nigeria.
This is as a result of hefty regulatory fines imposed on the platforms by the Federal Government and what it described as “unrealistic” demands from the authorities.
The BBC reported that the company issued the warning in a court filing seen by it.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission imposed a fine of $220m on Meta for multiple data privacy violations.
The fine was as a result of a 38-month joint investigation by the FCCPC and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission into the privacy practices and consumer data policies of WhatsApp and Meta.
However, Meta said it would appeal the fine.
On April 25, 2025, the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal upheld the $220m fine and gave the company until the end of June to pay up.
The BBC quoted Meta as saying that it might have to “effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures.”
However, the company did not include the instant messaging platform in its court filing.
The report said Meta’s primary grievance was with the NDPC, which it accused of misinterpreting Nigeria’s data protection laws.
While the NDPC alleged that Meta had violated data privacy laws and fined it $32.8m, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria fined the company $37.5m for unapproved advertising.
The commission insisted that Meta must seek prior approval before transferring Nigerian users’ data abroad — a demand the company called “unrealistic.”
The NDPC had also directed Meta to develop and display educational content on data privacy risks through a dedicated icon on its platforms.
The videos are expected to be produced in collaboration with government-approved institutions and non-profit organisations, and should address issues around manipulative and unfair data processing.
Meta, however, pushed back, describing the conditions as “unworkable” and asserting that the agency had failed to properly interpret the country’s data laws.
On its part, the FCCPC had said the fines were the result of investigations carried out between May 2021 and December 2023 in collaboration with the NDPC.
Meta has yet to publicly confirm its next course of action.
