President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to investigate major global technology companies, including Meta, Alphabet (Google), X (formerly Twitter), and certain generative artificial intelligence platforms over alleged anti-competitive practices and the unlawful use of Nigerian news content.
The directive follows a formal petition submitted by the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), which represents key media bodies such as the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), and the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP).
The FCCPC is expected to examine whether the alleged practices violate the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) 2018 or any other applicable laws. The Commission has assured that the investigation will be conducted independently, transparently, and based on evidence, with all parties to be given fair hearing. It stressed that no presumption of guilt has been made against any of the companies under review.
Reacting to the development, FCCPC Executive Vice Chairman, Mr. Tunji Bello, reaffirmed the Commission’s commitment to fairness, saying the inquiry is aimed at striking a balance between technological innovation and the protection of Nigeria’s media ecosystem and democratic space.
The move comes amid growing global scrutiny of how large technology companies use and distribute news content, with similar regulatory actions in other countries. In South Africa, for instance, Google reportedly agreed to pay local news publishers about $40 million annually over several years following related complaints.
