Meta has appealed a Lagos High Court ruling that found the company’s processing and profiling of Nigerian Facebook and Instagram users’ personal data for behavioural advertising unlawful, opening a new legal battle over consent, privacy and targeted advertising in Nigeria.
The company filed its notice of appeal on September 30, five days after Justice A.F. Pokanu of the Lagos High Court, Ikorodu Judicial Division, delivered the judgment. The court had ordered Meta to stop the unlawful processing, take steps to comply with the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023 and submit an affidavit of compliance within eight weeks. It also awarded the applicants the naira equivalent of $100,000 in damages and ₦1 million in costs.
At the heart of the dispute is whether Meta can make behavioural tracking and personalised advertising a condition of accessing Facebook and Instagram.
Meta’s business model relies heavily on advertising, with user activity helping the company personalise advertisements. The company argued that Facebook and Instagram are free services funded by advertising and that users agree to its terms and privacy policies when they register.
The Lagos court, however, distinguished between data processing required to operate a social-media platform and processing used to profile people for commercial advertising. The judgment reportedly rejected the idea that behavioural advertising automatically becomes necessary simply because advertising supports the free service.
The ruling also raised questions about whether broad terms of service can provide sufficient consent for detailed behavioural profiling. The court found that users’ continued use of Facebook or Instagram did not, by itself, mean they had surrendered their constitutional privacy rights.
The case is significant because it places Nigeria’s data-protection framework directly against the economics of global advertising platforms. If the judgment survives the appeal, technology companies may face greater pressure to separate consent for using a service from consent for specific forms of behavioural advertising.
Another important part of the judgment concerns cross-border data transfers. Meta argued that it does not operate a data centre in Nigeria and that users effectively send their information abroad when they use its platforms. The court rejected that reasoning, holding that users do not determine where their data is routed, stored or processed. Meta therefore remained responsible for meeting Nigerian requirements governing international transfers of personal information.
The dispute comes against a wider backdrop of regulatory scrutiny of Meta in Nigeria. In 2024, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission imposed a $220 million penalty on Meta and WhatsApp following an investigation into alleged privacy, consumer-protection and competition violations. The earlier regulatory matter is separate from the latest Lagos High Court case.
Still, the latest judgment should not yet be interpreted as a nationwide ban on targeted advertising or a requirement for every Nigerian Facebook and Instagram user to stop receiving personalised ads. It is a first-instance ruling involving the applicants, and Meta’s appeal means the Court of Appeal will have an opportunity to reconsider the issues.
For Nigerian consumers, however, the case represents a potentially important shift in the country’s digital-rights landscape. It asks whether access to a free online service should require users to surrender extensive behavioural data, or whether they should have a meaningful choice over how that information is commercially exploited.
For Meta, the appeal is about more than a $100,000 award. It could determine how one of the world’s largest advertising platforms must obtain consent and process personal data in one of Africa’s biggest digital markets.
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