Meta-owned company, WhatsApp said it may suspend its operations in Nigeria due to regulatory demands.
This is coming a week after the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) imposed a $220 million fine on WhatsApp for a data privacy breach.
In addition to the hefty fine, the FCCPC has mandated WhatsApp to halt the sharing of user data with other Facebook companies and third parties without explicit user consent.
The commission also requires WhatsApp to provide transparency about its data collection practices and to improve user control over data usage.
In response, a WhatsApp spokesperson told TechCabal via email, “We want to be clear that, technically, based on the order, it would be impossible to provide WhatsApp in Nigeria or globally.” The spokesperson criticized the FCCPC’s order as flawed, claiming it misrepresents WhatsApp’s data handling and would necessitate significant changes to the platform’s infrastructure.
Meta has not directly addressed the FCCPC’s allegations about user opt-out options from the 2021 privacy policy but asserts that the update does not involve sharing user data.
According to the company’s privacy policy, “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 substantial repercussions for individuals and small businesses in Nigeria, many of whom depend on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook for customer engagement.
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