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 (AI) platforms over allegations of anti-competitive practices and the unlawful exploitation of Nigerian media content.
The directive followed a petition submitted to the Presidency by the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), which represents newspaper proprietors, journalists, broadcasters and online publishers.
According to the FCCPC, the investigation will examine claims that the digital platforms have engaged in anti-competitive conduct and have commercially used copyrighted Nigerian news articles and broadcast materials without fair compensation to publishers.
The probe will also assess allegations that journalistic content has been extracted, scraped and used to train AI models without appropriate authorisation or licensing agreements.
The Commission noted that concerns have grown within Nigeria’s media industry over the influence of global technology companies on the country’s news ecosystem.
Media organisations argue that the dominance of these platforms has weakened the commercial viability of local publishers by diverting advertising revenue while benefiting from content produced by Nigerian journalists.
Executive Vice Chairman of the FCCPC, Tunji Bello, assured stakeholders that the investigation would be conducted independently, transparently and based on verifiable evidence. Uú8
He emphasised that the inquiry does not presume wrongdoing by any company, adding that all parties involved would be given the opportunity to present their positions before any conclusions are reached.
The investigation aligns Nigeria with several countries that have introduced measures requiring technology firms to negotiate compensation with news publishers or comply with stricter competition rules.
The Federal Government said the outcome of the probe could help establish a fairer digital marketplace, protect the rights of Nigerian content creators and strengthen the sustainability of the country’s media industry in the age of artificial intelligence.
