{"id":64962,"date":"2025-04-28T05:31:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T05:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=64962"},"modified":"2025-04-28T05:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T05:31:32","slug":"pay-220-million-fine-or-face-justice-serap-tells-zuckerberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/04\/28\/pay-220-million-fine-or-face-justice-serap-tells-zuckerberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay $220 million Fine or Face Justice SERAP Tells Zuckerberg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Oso Abidemi\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Socio Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to immediately pay the $220 million fine imposed on the company by Nigeria\u2019s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), or face legal action.<\/p>\n<p>In a strongly worded letter dated April 26, 2025, signed by SERAP\u2019s deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the group urged Zuckerberg to provide justice and compensation to Nigerians affected by what it described as Meta\u2019s grave violations of consumer rights, data protection, and privacy laws.<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday, Nigeria\u2019s Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal upheld the FCCPC\u2019s fine against Meta after a 38 month investigation revealed discriminatory and exploitative practices by the tech giant.<\/p>\n<p>SERAP also demanded Meta pay an additional $35,000 awarded as investigation costs, halt all identified violations, and ensure the accountability of those responsible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Tribunal\u2019s ruling confirms Meta\u2019s operations in Nigeria have violated human rights and continue to chill free expression,\u201d SERAP said. \u201cYou have a duty to ensure transparency, accountability and full respect for Nigerians\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SERAP warned Zuckerberg against appealing the judgment, giving Meta seven days to comply or risk further legal steps both nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery company operating in Nigeria has a duty to respect human rights. Meta must remedy the harm it caused and prevent future abuses,\u201d Oluwadare stated.<\/p>\n<p>The $220 million penalty stems from findings that Meta and its subsidiaries, including WhatsApp, engaged in harmful practices against Nigerian consumers, breaching both local and international human rights standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Oso Abidemi\u00a0 The Socio Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to immediately pay the $220 million fine imposed on the company by Nigeria\u2019s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), or face legal action. In a strongly worded letter dated April 26, 2025, signed by SERAP\u2019s deputy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":64963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-64962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64964,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64962\/revisions\/64964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}