Nigeria President Tinubu orders FCCPC probe of big tech and suspends new digital platform rules

President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to investigate major technology companies—including Meta, Alphabet (Google), X and generative‑AI platforms—over alleged anti‑competitive practices and the unauthorised extraction and commercial use of Nigerian news content. The probe follows a joint petition from the Nigerian Press Organisation, which represents newspaper owners, journalists’ unions, broadcasters and online publishers, and will examine market dominance, illegal scraping of copyrighted material for AI training and the lack of fair compensation for publishers. The FCCPC says the inquiry will be independent, evidence‑based and does not presume wrongdoing.

In a related move, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Bosun Tijani announced the suspension of enforcement of recently introduced regulations affecting internet platforms and online intermediaries. He instructed the Nigerian Communications Commission, the National Information Technology Development Agency and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission to maintain the existing regulatory status‑quo while a Joint Technical Coordination Committee develops a harmonised national policy and governance framework for the digital economy. Existing regulations that fall squarely within each agency’s statutory mandate remain in force.

Both actions aim to reduce regulatory overlap, protect the media sector, provide legal certainty for investors and support Nigeria’s ambition to become Africa’s leading digital economy.