Nigeria probes big tech, AI firms for ‘unlawful’ media content use

Nigeria’s competition regulator said Monday it was investigating major technology and AI companies over allegations of “unlawful exploitation of news content” and “unfair market practices”.

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) said in a statement the investigation followed a directive from President Bola Tinubu after a joint petition to the presidency by the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), an umbrella body representing journalists, newspaper proprietors and online publishers.

The regulator said the investigation would examine allegations of “market dominance and anti-competitive conduct”, as well as claims of the unauthorised use of journalistic content including news articles for the development and training of generative artificial intelligence models.

“The NPO is increasingly uncomfortable with major technology companies including Meta, Alphabet, X (formerly Twitter), and certain Generative Al platforms, citing practices capable of undermining fair competition,” FCCPC’s spokesman Ondaja Ijagwu said in a statement.

The FCCPC also said it would investigate claims that Nigerian media organisations have been “denied meaningful opportunities to negotiate fair compensation or appropriate commercial arrangements for the use of their journalistic content”.

As media has moved online, big tech companies are accused of largely capturing advertising spending that appears on the internet, leaving little left over for news outlets and other websites.

Countries such as Canada and Australia have also pushed for big tech companies, notably Meta and Google, to compensate news publishers whose stories drive traffic to their apps and sites.

Meta, Alphabet and X did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not clear which AI companies were being investigated.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, had some 154.7 million internet subscriptions as of April, according to the National Communication Commission.

WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and X are among the most popular in the country.

And Nigeria’s film industry, Nollywood, is increasingly turning to YouTube, owned by Google-parent Alphabet, as foreign streaming platforms scale back commissions for new local productions.

FCCPC director Tunji Bello said the inquiry was not a “presumption of wrongdoing” and served as “an opportunity to carefully examine the facts, hear from all affected parties, and determine whether any conduct has resulted in anti-competitive outcomes or unfair business practices.”