from Hacker News

Nigeria fines Meta $220M for violating consumer, data laws

by skilled on 7/19/24, 6:42 PM with 41 comments

  • by blackhawkC17 on 7/20/24, 5:30 AM

    I’m Nigerian, and this is my take.

    This is just a shakedown move by a corrupt, extremely incompetent government looking for funding…they might have just begged Zuckerberg to donate directly.

    This country has never cared about data privacy. They literally handed our entire national identity database to dubious third parties, by refusing to implement basic security practices [1].

    I hope Zuckerberg tells the government to pound sand and just blocks Nigerians from Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. It’s not like Meta makes much profit from this poor country anyway.

    1- https://www.thecable.ng/revealed-how-nimc-exposed-private-da...

  • by xyst on 7/19/24, 11:47 PM

    Instead of a fine, Nigeria government should have just invoiced them. It (sort of) worked for one Lithuanian man between 2013-2015 [1]

    [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/business/facebook-google-...

  • by extraduder_ire on 7/19/24, 11:26 PM

    For reference: that's below $1 per resident.

  • by ilrwbwrkhv on 7/19/24, 9:02 PM

    Facebook can simply not pay it? Nigeria cannot do anything I imagine.

  • by SoftTalker on 7/19/24, 11:40 PM

    Good news, a prince needs some help getting his family inheritance out of the country. Meta can just provide its bank account and routing code numbers to receive the transfer, and will get to keep 25%. They're set.