LAGOS – Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has ordered the country’s competition watchdog to investigate global tech giants including Alphabet, Meta, X, and generative AI firms over anti-competitive conduct and the unauthorized exploitation of local news content.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) announced the inquiry following a joint petition from the Nigerian Press Organisation, which represents publishers and journalists who claim their content is scraped without compensation.
According to the regulator, the probe will focus on the unpermitted extraction and ingestion of copyrighted news articles and broadcast materials used to train advanced generative artificial intelligence models.
The FCCPC will also investigate whether these tech companies abuse their market dominance by blocking Nigerian media organizations from securing fair revenue-sharing agreements and negotiating equitable commercial terms for their journalistic output.
FCCPC Executive Vice Chairman Tunji Bello clarified that the inquiry represents an evidence-based assessment under the FCCPA 2018 rather than a presumption of guilt, ensuring all affected parties have opportunities to respond.
This regulatory action intensifies Nigeria’s friction with global tech firms, following a landmark 2025 enforcement action where the FCCPC slapped Meta with a $220 million fine for data privacy and antitrust violations.
