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Meta Threatens To Pull Facebook And Instagram Out Of Nigeria Over $290 Million Fine (techdirt.com) 53

Posted by BeauHD from the we'll-see-about-that dept.
According to Rest of the World, a major confrontation between Meta and the local authorities in Nigeria is currently taking place: "Local authorities have fined Meta $290 million for regulatory breaches, prompting the social media giant to threaten pulling Facebook and Instagram from the country." Techdirt reports: As with earlier EU fines imposed on the company, the sticking point is Meta's refusal to comply with local privacy laws [...]. The fine itself is small change for Meta, which had a net income of $62 billion on a turnover of $165 billion in 2024, and a market capitalization of $1.5 trillion. Meta's current revenues in Nigeria are relatively small, but its market shares are high: "According to social media performance tracker Napoleoncat, Meta has a massive presence in the country, with Facebook alone reaching about 51.2 million users as of May 2024, more than a fifth of the population. Instagram had 12.6 million Nigerian users as of November 2023, while WhatsApp had about 51 million users, making Nigeria the 10th largest market globally for the messaging app."

Since many Nigerians depend on Meta's platforms, the company might be hoping that there will be public pressure on the government not to impose the fine in order to avoid a shutdown of its services there. But it is hard to see Meta carrying out its threat to walk away from a country expected to be the third most populous nation in the world by 2050. In 2100, the population of Nigeria could reach 541 million according to current projections.

Meta Threatens To Pull Facebook And Instagram Out Of Nigeria Over $290 Million Fine More | Reply

Meta Threatens To Pull Facebook And Instagram Out Of Nigeria Over $290 Million Fine

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  • How can we get them to pull out of the USA? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ndsurvivor ( 891239 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2025 @08:04PM (#65374735)
    I think it would be a great benefit to Society.

  • Zuck should apply for asylum (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ...as a white man being treated very unfairly in Africa.

  • I doubt their society will collapse without Facebook. Chances are it'll improve.

    And the only reason Meta is worth anything is inertia. Social media platforms aren't worth anything beyond their user base x activity level. If it's really that important to them, the government can deploy a national replacement service in extremely short order.

    In fact, if Zuck doesn't want to play by the local rules, their government should make some noise about doing exactly that. I bet he'd change his mind instantly.

    • Re:Sounds like a stupid threat (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2025 @10:40PM (#65375029)

      On the contrary, it is a very unpleasant confirmation of the theory that US billionaires believe they have more power than smaller countries and now, with the US populace electing a president that is corrupt to the core - they believe they can openly threaten them without fear.

      When the same question was put forward in the pre-trump age, FB has never uttered a pip about ending service, despite his bootlickers here who've been telling him to leave the EU for years.

      zuck the droid swallowed the EU fines.

      He'd have swallowed putin's requests to host russian FB in russia, too, have the US not imposed sanctions.

      We know he did discuss doing exactly this in China with the authorities there. https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]

      So, what changed?

      Yes, you, the trump flock, electing a bully, who can easily be bribed. You are the threat, and it is not "stupid", but a very serious one.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hentes ( 2461350 )

      Facebook is a major ISP in Africa, in many regions they are the only provider.

  • we can all agree that fb is a net cost to our society correct? this is a major win for nigeria. their citizens will be better off without this cancerous distraction.

    • Perhaps you should go outside of your bubble once?

      What is the alternative in Nigeria to Messenger?
      Likely none. Because: 90% of the users of Messenger have no: Telegram (they do not know it exists), no Signal (they do not know it exists) ... and so on. And: no email (because: they do not know it exists)

      For 90% of the planet "www" is "the internet". For 80% of the planet FB is: email, and the internet.

      Unless perhaps 10yearts/15years ago, no one in Asia/Africa would ask you for your email address, they asked:

  • Dear Canada... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dskoll ( 99328 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2025 @08:32PM (#65374795) Homepage

    Please fine Meta $290 million. Thanks!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by drnb ( 2434720 )

      Please fine Meta $290 million. Thanks!

      Adjusting for population, Canada should only need to manufacture about $49M in fines. :-)

    • The problem is that won't cause Meta to pull out. This fundamentally is a game of mathematics. It's a very different question of whether to abandon a third world country where 60million people have no access to electricity, vs a country of 40million comparatively rich westerners.

      Remember on a per capita basis the EU fined Meta far more than Nigeria did just now, and yet there was never even a consideration of pulling out of the EU.

      Money talks.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dskoll ( 99328 )

        Unfortunately, that's probably true. In which case, Canada should simply ban Facebook and Instagram. I know there are free-speech issues in play here, but if we don't protect our democracy, we'll lose our freedom of expression anyway.

  • They keep saying Nigeria’s population will grow that big. I don’t see it happening. Their government barely functions and resources, including education, are poorly allocated. They have children like an agrarian society while the majority of people are urban. I mean, India certainly kept growing and they are about as dysfunctional. But they at least have a history of science and engineering among the upper classes. I know it sounds like it, but I am not disparaging individual Nigerians. Given th
    • You should write up your analysis and include all your citations for submission to a journal. Once it gets the praise it deserves, I'm sure the UN will change their estimates.

    • The single biggest reason for population growth is the lack of government - when the only social security you can get depends on the number of your grown-up children who will support you in old age, you tend to produce more of them.

      Large population growth simply ceases in developed countries, because the opportunity costs of having many children become too high.

      Economics and sociology 101-level stuff, really.

      • The children are not produced with "social security" in mind.

        They happen by something that some people call: lovely passing time.

        Or do you really think a "insert random African country" couple likes to see their kids starving and suffering? Oh, they are freshly converted Christians or Muslime, know still nothing about birth control and/or want a lot of children because it gives them "prestige" - or what ever,

        Most certainly they do not make them "intentionally", to feed them at old age.

    • You may be right but not for those reasons. In fact Nigeria has not had a census on a very long time. There are many theories on why they can't seem to get it done, even with many other developed countries offering to help. Funding for local areas is done by population, the last census was ripe with proven fraud people double counted and other fun things. That has led to a status quo where local governments get a fair amount of money but nobody actually knows if they need it. If a proper census was done

      • Nigeria, like most African states/nations, is an artificial construct.
        A remanent of the colonization where European invaders cut up the pie amoung each other.
        When the invaders withdrew, the various "provinces" became countries, until civil wars divided them again, or they stuck like Nigeria or Kenya.
        There are plenty of countries that barely have a functional government. Does not matter which you pick. Most are run by a clan, that can manipulate votes, without manipulation: as 60% of the country have the sam

  • And fine them another 100 million for it.

    Companies need to learn that they are beneath the governments, not above them. If you want to do business in a country, you need to obey the laws of it, not threaten them.

    • They're assholes all day but TBF they are threatening to not do business in the country, which is the remedy you suggest...

    • Indeed, but governments also need to remember that companies exist only to make business decisions. The decision for a tech and digital advertising company to abandon a country where 60million people don't have access to even an electricity grid is easier than it would be to say abandon a major market of rich westerners like e.g. Europe.

      Notice how Meta's share price barely moved? If they threaten to pull out of Europe, Canada, or any other actual *profitable* place that would look very different.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      And fine them another 100 million for it.

      Companies need to learn that they are beneath the governments, not above them. If you want to do business in a country, you need to obey the laws of it, not threaten them.

      Ordinarily I'd agree but in this case there's a chance they've done nothing wrong. Nigeria exports two things, oil and scams... and they're running out of oil.

  • Go ahead, pull out and never go back.

    You tried that before and you are still regretting it, aren't you?

    • I don't think they ever said they'd NEVER GO BACK. They can pull out now and come back whenever they decide it's worth while.

  • Sounds like an inventive to fine Meta even more.

  • The Nigerian scams will also be gone when Zuck does that.
    So maybe a win-win situation for all of us.

  • Better yet, Nigeria will GAIN something by being rid of a very big chunk of social (media) disease.

    Go ahead Zuck! Don't just threaten to make their lives better, promise it!! PLEASE!!

  • Seems to me the answer to this kind of blackmail is for every country where Meta operates that still has even a shred of concern for its citizens should slap Zuck with the same kind of fine...the bigger the better. See how that slimy POS likes it when just about everybody in the Free World tells him to pay up and get with the program, or f^ck right off and watch while some upstart platform with a bit more respect for its users moves in to eat his lunch.

  • Please fine Meta $290 million too.

  • If Nigeria reacts to such an extortion they effectively tell Meta they can do what they want because they are too big to fail.

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