WhatsApp may suspend its operations in Nigeria just a week after the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission imposed a $220 million fine for a data privacy breach, due to additional regulatory demands.
Sources reveal that Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, is considering withdrawing certain services from Nigeria.
Following a hefty $220 million fine, the FCCPC has mandated that WhatsApp stop sharing user data with Facebook and third parties without explicit consent, disclose its data collection practices, and give users more control over their data.
In a response to TechCabal, a WhatsApp spokesperson criticized the FCCPC’s order, stating, “Technically, adhering to the order would make it impossible to operate WhatsApp in Nigeria or globally.” The spokesperson argued that the directive misrepresents WhatsApp’s data handling and would require major infrastructure changes.
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However, Meta has not addressed the FCCPC’s allegations regarding user opt-out options from the 2021 privacy policy but maintains that the update does not involve sharing 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.”
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