President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to investigate Meta, Google, X and selected artificial intelligence (AI) companies over allegations of anti-competitive conduct and the unauthorised use of Nigerian media content.
The directive follows a petition by the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), which accused the global technology companies of practices that undermine the sustainability of Nigeria’s media industry through the exploitation of journalistic content without fair compensation.
In a statement issued on Monday, the FCCPC said the investigation would examine allegations of abuse of market dominance, unfair competition, the unauthorised use of copyrighted news content, and the use of journalistic materials to train generative AI models without the consent of rights holders.
The NPO comprises 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).
According to the commission, investigators will assess whether AI developers have extracted, scraped, ingested and commercially used copyrighted news articles, broadcast materials and other journalistic content to train generative AI systems without authorisation or appropriate compensation.
Commenting on the development, the FCCPC’s Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tunji Bello, said the investigation would be conducted objectively and based strictly on evidence.
“We recognise the strategic importance of the media to Nigeria’s democracy and the equally significant role of technology in driving innovation and economic growth,” Bello said.
“Our responsibility is to objectively determine the facts and ensure that competition within the digital ecosystem remains fair, transparent, and consistent with Nigerian law.”
He stressed that the probe should not be interpreted as a presumption of wrongdoing by any company, adding that all parties involved would have the opportunity to respond to the allegations before any conclusions are reached.
The commission said it would also investigate claims that Nigerian media organisations have been denied fair opportunities to negotiate licensing agreements or receive compensation for the commercial use of their content, an issue that has become the subject of growing legal disputes between publishers and technology companies in several jurisdictions.
