US tech giant Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — vowed earlier this month to fight huge fines issued by authorities in Nigeria for regulatory breaches.

It comes after a Nigerian tribunal in April rejected Meta's appeal against a $220 million (€202 million) fine imposed last year by the country's consumer protection agency, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).

FCCPC Chief Executive Officer Adamu Abdullahi said investigations carried out in conjunction with the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) between May 2021 and December 2023 revealed "invasive practices against data subjects/consumers in Nigeria."

The FCCPC accused Meta of discriminatory practices, abuse of market dominance, sharing Nigerians' personal data without authorization and denying Nigerians the right to determine how their data is used.

A Meta spokesperson told the AFP news agency that they "disagree with the NDPC's decision, which fails to take into account the wide range of settings and tools that allow everyone using Facebook and Instagram in Nigeria to control how their information is used."

"We're committed to protecting user privacy and have appealed the decision," the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, according to British daily The Guardian, lawyers are

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