Real Reason WhatsApp May Leave Nigeria Besides $220m Fine

WhatsApp may suspend its operations in Nigeria, after the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, slapped its parent company, Meta a $220 million fine for data privacy breach among other alleged infractions.

The parent company is, however, insisting that it may not be able to meet the demands of the Nigerian authorities and hence the prospect of removing its services from Nigeria.

Upon the fine and the demands Meta, which is WhatsApp’s parent company, might withdraw certain services from Nigeria.

Apart from the huge fine, the FCCPC has ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with other Facebook companies and third parties without explicit user consent.

The Commission is also demanding that WhatsApp disclose details about its data collection practices, and enhance user control over data usage.

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

Meta has not addressed the FCCPC’s allegations regarding user opt-out options from the 2021 privacy policy, but insists that the update does not involve sharing user data.

GWG.ng reports that the prospects of WhatsApp exiting Nigeria upon the fine could be a major development in the country given the popularity of the service in the country.

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