👨🏽⚖️ Meta’s global privacy disaster finally gets an African chapter
African countries are not buying into Meta’s privacy playbook.
Meta’s been fined in Europe, sued in India, and now, African regulators are pushing back too.
In Nigeria, officials upheld a $220 million fine after a 38-month investigation found that Meta had been quietly sharing WhatsApp user data without proper consent. Now the company has 60 days to pay up, restore consent controls, and roll back to its 2016 privacy policy, or face even more penalties.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Information Regulator says Meta’s doing the same thing there—serving ~23 million WhatsApp users a watered-down privacy policy that wouldn’t fly elsewhere. And if WhatsApp doesn’t clean things up, it could face fines up to $530,000, or stricter penalties.
But here’s where it gets interesting: Meta previously hinted that WhatsApp might exit Nigeria entirely if rules get too strict. Nothing’s confirmed yet, but with over 51 million Nigerian WhatsApp users, losing the service would leave a major gap.
Overall, one thing’s clear, though: African regulators are done being polite about the double standards African users face.
— Kelechi
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