President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to launch an investigation into global tech giants and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms over anti-competitive practices and the unlawful exploitation of Nigerian media content.

The probe targets major tech conglomerates including Meta, Alphabet (Google), X (formerly Twitter), and various AI firms operating within the country.

The presidential directive follows a joint petition submitted to the Presidency by the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO). The NPO is an umbrella body comprising 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).

The directive was formally conveyed to the FCCPC through the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.

According to a statement issued on Monday by the FCCPC’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Ondaje Ijagwu, the investigation will focus heavily on market dominance, unauthorized content scraping, and the ingestion of copyrighted news articles and broadcast materials used to train Generative AI models.

Local publishers have long complained about declining revenues, alleging they are denied meaningful opportunities to negotiate fair compensation while tech platforms freely monetise their original journalism.

The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the FCCPC, Tunji Bello, assured stakeholders that the commission will conduct an independent, transparent, and evidence-based inquiry.

"Our responsibility is to objectively determine the facts and ensure that competition within the digital ecosystem remains fair, transparent, and consistent with Nigerian law," Bello stated, clarifying that the inquiry does not presume wrongdoing ahead of the findings.

The FCCPC will determine if these tech practices violate the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) of 2018.

This development mirrors a global shift toward digital platform regulation. Recently, the South African Competition Commission secured an agreement where Google committed to paying South African news media R688 million ($40 million) annually.

The Nigerian probe also comes on the heels of a landmark $220 million penalty imposed by the FCCPC on Meta for data privacy breaches, a decision the tech giant is currently appealing.