WhatsApp may suspend and exit Nigeria over $220m fine

WhatsApp may suspend its operations in Nigeria due to regulatory demands.

One week ago, Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) fined WhatsApp $220 million for violating data privacy.

According to individuals close to the matter, Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, is considering discontinuing some services in Nigeria.

Along with the significant punishment, the FCCPC ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with other Facebook firms and other parties without specific user authorization. The commission also demands WhatsApp to reveal information regarding its data gathering practices and give users more control over their data usage.

In response, a WhatsApp spokeswoman told TechCabal: “We want to make it clear that, technically, based on the order, it would be impossible to provide WhatsApp in Nigeria or globally.”

The spokesman slammed the FCCPC’s ruling as faulty, claiming that it misrepresents WhatsApp’s data processing and would need major modifications to the platform’s infrastructure.

Meta has not responded to the FCCPC’s charges about user opt-out choices in the 2021 privacy policy, but insists that the change does not include exchanging user data.

The company’s privacy policy states, “While traditionally mobile carriers and operators store this information, we believe that keeping these records for two billion users would be both a privacy and security risk and we don’t do it.”

The potential suspension of WhatsApp could have significant repercussions for individuals and small businesses in Nigeria, many of whom rely on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook for customer engagement.