President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to investigate major global technology companies and Generative AI platforms over allegations of anti-competitive practices and the unauthorised use of Nigerian news content.
The directive followed a petition by the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), representing media groups including NPAN, NUJ, BON, GOCOP and the Nigerian Guild of Editors. The petition accused companies such as Meta, Alphabet (Google) and X (formerly Twitter) of practices that allegedly threaten the sustainability of Nigeria’s media industry.
According to the FCCPC, the investigation will examine allegations of market dominance, unfair competition, and the use of copyrighted news content to train AI models without publishers’ consent. It will also assess whether technology firms have denied Nigerian media organisations fair commercial agreements for the use of their content.
FCCPC Executive Vice Chairman, Tunji Bello, said the inquiry would be transparent, impartial and evidence-based, stressing that the investigation does not presume any company has broken the law.
The commission noted that similar action in South Africa resulted in Google agreeing to pay local news publishers about $40 million annually. It also recalled its previous regulatory action against Meta, which is appealing a $220 million fine imposed over alleged breaches of Nigeria’s consumer protection and data privacy laws.
